Q: Wipe & start again. (slow iMac)

Hi,

My 2010 iMac i3 3.2Ghz 4GB RAM, has become so painfully slow using ML that I need to either get a new computer or wipe clean & hope things improve.

I have owned & used many Macs since for over 20 years, but right now its the worst experience I ever had. Since Lion all my computers, even brand new, seem slower than my 1998 iMac bonbai blue ... anyway.... thats another story.

Its odd because Apple apps like Mail, iphoto, safari are really slow (minutes per click) but photoshop CS6 etc is no problem.

I have a 2TB backup drive using Time Machine.

If I completely WIPE my iMac & start again, can I still recover my data?

I dont mean using the auto time machine recover or import utilities - because they will just re-import all the crap which is causing problems. I mean can I selectively drag & drop data which i consider is OK.

Mostly i think this will be fine, but i am concerned about iPhoto & Mail & iTunes - is there any way to selectively restore those?

If i only have the choice to "restore user folder" then I will be back to where i am now.