Partial Restore from Time Machine Backup

Question

Level 1

25 points

Partial Restore from Time Machine Backup

Hello- I'll be as brief as I can. Any help would be great.

Background: I need to do a clean install of Mountain Lion and would like to pick and choose what I restore from Time Machine after the install.

Specifics: After doing a clean install of Mountain Lion, I would like to only restore things like music, photos, documents, and an Application or Two.

Question: Is this doable and if so, any suggestions how to do this right and tips/tricks?

Thanks!

PS- In case you are curious why: We just bought a new iMac. Did a migration from our iMac from 2004 which has A LOT OF CRUFT. As soon as we did the migration, the new iMac was as slow as the old one. Not good. 😀

Posted on Jan 16, 2013 2:11 PM

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Answer 1

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Jan 16, 2013 2:13 PM in response to mr.bill

When you select the option to restore the backup, Setup Assistant will ask you to choose what you want to restore to the Mac, so just select the folders to restore with the files you want

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Answer 2

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Jan 17, 2013 11:25 AM in response to mr.bill

I think that Library folder doesn't appear, so it will be transferred. However, you can transfer your user folder and select Documents only, so only the documents will be transferred to the hard drive with Library.

Anyway, as you haven't got the applications of your old Mac, you shouldn't notice any performance decrease

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Answer 3

mr.bill Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 17, 2013 11:23 AM in response to mende1

Hello- When I went to restore from a TM backup (migration assistant).. the only options it gives me is an entire user account, applications, settings, and other... I'd like to get more granular than that. If I do user account for instance, its going to move a whole bunch of stuff I don't care about. I just want the documents, but not the library cruft.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

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Answer 4

mr.bill Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 16, 2013 2:21 PM in response to mende1

Geez... That's easy. Thx!

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Answer 5

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Jan 16, 2013 2:22 PM in response to mr.bill

You are welcome

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Answer 6

mr.bill Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 17, 2013 1:54 PM in response to mende1

Hello Again- Figured it out... I had to wait until it was done calculating before it provided me the options. Once it was done, I could choose what I wanted transfered.

Thx!

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Answer 7

mende1

Level 10

93,624 points

Jan 17, 2013 1:59 PM in response to mr.bill

You are welcome

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Answer 8

Aug 18, 2017 7:16 AM in response to mende1

Hi!

If I wanted to restore JUST microsoft word, excel etc and all required system/library files, presumably there is no automatic way of doing that, without detailed knowledge of how microsoft sets up its applications?

or can i just restore the microsft applications - will they automatically create all the required library files?

thanks!

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Answer 9

Eric Root

Level 10

685,263 points

Aug 18, 2017 7:59 AM in response to akfromnyc

You will need to restore all the files or reinstall the application from scratch.

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Answer 10

Aug 18, 2017 8:25 AM in response to Eric Root

thanks - as i feared

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