MacOS – Reinstalling OS X Lion vs restoring from Time Machine backup

installmacosrestoretime-machine

If the system doesn't boot up (it was due to this issue), is it better to reinstall OS X Lion, or restore from a Time Machine backup?

I do see a Time Machine backup from 3 AM last night, so if that is used to restore the machine, will it read all 600 GB from the external backup drive and copy it to the iMac's hard drive, or will it just do the selective restore, kind of like Windows 7's setting a restore point, and any rollback should be partial – i.e., it only needs to restore a few files to make the system work fine again, but is it the same as on OS X Lion's Time Machine restore?

Is restoring a better approach than reinstalling OS X?

Best Answer

A Time Machine restore will restore to the last point in time in the backup. A fresh install of Lion will bring your machine to new status.

However, if you do a fresh install and tell it to use the Time Machine backup to restore your data, it will also bring it back to the same point in time.

Some people [citation needed] prefer to use this opportunity to do a fresh install and then selectively drag the data they want from Time Machine back again.

However, keep in mind that if you set up a new backup, it could overwrite the old one.

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Mac – What would I lose if I needed to reinstall from a Time Machine backup

Things which they were not restored and they were crucial, was:

MySQL Databases
VMWare Fusion virtual machines

The default backup exclusion list, can be found in:

/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.plist

Do not forget to check your excluding folders on the prefs as well ;)

Mac – Restoring a MacBook from backup

All of the above are possible. Thought it is possible to restore from a Time Machine Backup on a Brand new Mac or Newly Installed Drive.

If I erase the hard drive in Disk Utilities will it think the Time Machine back up is a different computer?

This won't matter at all because when you do a clean install and then boot, it will ask you if you want to restore from a Time Machine Backup, another computer, etc. SO that is completely possible.

If you just want files, not preferences or user account information or applications, and you can access the drive on the Time Machine and find the backup folder it uses to do the Time Machine Backup, you can just copy over those files. You can very simply traverse through the folders, BUT DON'T MOVE OR DELETE ANYTHING IN THOSE FOLDERS OR ELSE!

Sorry to use all caps its just important that you don't. I have done this many times. Back up with Time Machine. New OS comes out. Erase and Install. Reset up like a new machine. Copy over my iTunes and iPhoto and Documents. JUST DON'T DELETE OR MOVE ANYTHING ON THE TIME MACHINE DRIVE.

If you go the other route and do a restore from a Time Machine Backup, it will just make your computer exactly how it was since it last backed up. I personally like clean installs but some people don't like setting up a computer from scratch every time and reinstalling things.

Which ever route you prefer. I hope my answer helped.

Best Answer

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Mac – Restoring a MacBook from backup

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