Q: Hard drive failed - steps to restore from time machine
The HD on my aging iMac died and I have had to have a new drive installed as a stopgap measure. My question is this: the new drive has OS X El Capitan loaded which is the same as the old one ran. How do I restore from my most recent time machine back up and will it load the Apps (such as MS Office, iBank, Chrome etc) or will I need to load these first? I also understand I need to create a new user first to avoid any conflict over usernames. It is an old iMac and I wanted to recover everything first before buying an entirely new machine since I am hopeful that Apple will update the iMac line soon.
many thanks
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 4GB RAM
Posted on Sep 12, 2016 4:04 PM
Please read Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support.
Follow the instructions under "Restore everything".
... will it load the Apps (such as MS Office, iBank, Chrome etc)
Yes.
I also understand I need to create a new user first to avoid any conflict over usernames.
That will not be necessary, since restoring everything will erase the internal drive first, including its operating system and user accounts.
Posted on Sep 12, 2016 4:31 PM