How do I restore my home directory from a time machine backup

I don't see how this helps me.

It will allow me to create either a new Admin account which I expect will have the same problem restoring my user account as the spare Admin account I already have.

Or

I would be able to create a new user account with Admin privileges which will not have the history (passwords, browsing etc) that I am trying to get back. My main user account is still there. It has just lost all the customisation.

If I am missing something, please explain.

What I did was pare down my user directory then attempt to copy it from the HDD to the SSD using drag 'n drop. I realised partway through that that approach would not preserve permissions so I attempted to put it back, but missed so it moved the directory instead (target was on same disk). In hindsight I would have been much better off if I had placed it on the new drive, then aborted the copy.

At the moment I have installed a new HDD and am attempting a restore of the User profile there. I will know in a day or two if it is a successful strategy. (Copy is currently reporting "About a day")

I am not sure what happened either. It was one of those late night mistakes. My explanation above is my best guess as to what I did. It did happen virtually instantaneously though.

My action of replacing the hard drive then restoring just the User home folder has worked. The only thing missing that I have noticed so far is my DropBox account. Signing in and waiting for a sync has rectified that.

I need to repeat the paring down so I can move the HomeDir to the smaller drive as the last backup was before the last pare down.

I am intrigued about using the Migration Assistant to move a User from one drive to another. I thought it was just for moving from one computer to another. I will have to look into it. All the suggestions I have seen have involved Finder or a command line copy followed by adjusting the location in SystemPreferences->Users->Advanced.

I just tried the migration assistant. It did not give me the option of transferring a user from one disk to another on the same Mac.

It will be useful when I do the move to my new computer though. I just have to buy it first. Still tossing up between an iMac5K and a low end MacPro.

I did. Migration Assistant does not see the internal disk drive I want to transfer from. That makes it impossible to use for my purpose. It does see my two TM NAS boxes (but not the other NAS drives) though. The trouble with them is that the Home Folder backed up on them is too large to fit on the SSD.

Oh and iTunes has lost my music library. I will need to transfer some of the Music folder back from where I moved it to. Music must have backed up after the pare down.