best practices for restoring from TM after a month of using new mac?

[leep]

I have a 2009 MPB running 10.9.5 with an 500GB SSD that is having EFI problems. (Initially I was getting the "The partition map needs to be repaired because there's a problem with the EFI system partition's file system" error but now I can't even get the recovery screen.) I'm far from home and have limited resources for trying some fixes (although i did try re-seating the drive cable, but that didn't help). I'm likely going to get a new MPB soon.

I have a Time Machine (last backup is from a month ago, before I started traveling) but that's thousands of miles away. So I won't be able to do a restore of it for another month.

So I'm trying to envision what's the best thing to do.

If I get a new MBP now and use it for a month will I then restore from my TM backup and then manually move over certain items from the past month from the "new" account to the restored account? I'm guessing the username on the new MBP should be different than the name on the old acct/MBP? I've never done a restore from TM so I don't know all the details.

Also, I have no idea how large my TM backup is. I know it doesn't include the OS and I know I didn't backup every folder, but I only had about 60GB of free space on the old/broken MBP. If I happened to get a 250-ish GB capacity MBP, can I easily pick and choose what gets restored since I may not be able to restore all the files? (Ideally though I'm hoping to get a 500G or 1T machine.)

Thanks.

 

[cruisin]

It's possible to restore an old backup, but you will have issues if you reuse the username (so yes, choose a different name or put a 2 at the end). It is entirely possible to swap files between accounts. If you are not bothered with restoring apps or settings then you could just mount the backup and bring over just the documents, music, video, etc, but you need to recall the places you put everything.

Partial recovery of documents is relatively easily. You will need to fully eject the mounted backup (like a USB drive) when you are done before you put the Mac to sleep or disconnect from the backup, as corruption is possible (ask me how I know). Simply connect the drive and check for the sparsebundle filetype (usually named after the computer name so name.sparsebundle) either in the drives main folder or in the Data folder. Open it like a normal file, and after a few seconds it should be mounted like an external drive. Look for the folder named latest (unless you want an older file) and navigate the file structure to get what you want (The Users folder is a good place to start as it has Documents and Desktop folders).

The Time Machine backup keeps a copy of everything you had when you last did the backup (minus the OS and any folders you excluded) plus as many versions of files as it can store in the remaining space (so you can pull up an older file from last week or even last year if you have the space). So subtracting about 10GB for the OS your backup will be about the size of your old drive minus about 60 GB + 10 GB (and subtract your unbacked up folders) but it looks like more than 250 GB (and computers run poorly when approaching capacity so really you should aim for 230 GB or less).

Hope that helps.

 

[CoastalOR]

The Time Machine backup keeps a copy of everything you had when you last did the backup (minus the OS and any folders you excluded) plus as many versions of files as it can store in the remaining space (so you can pull up an older file from last week or even last year if you have the space). So subtracting about 10GB for the OS your backup will be about the size of your old drive minus about 60 GB + 10 GB (and subtract your unbacked up folders) but it looks like more than 250 GB (and computers run poorly when approaching capacity so really you should aim for 230 GB or less).

Just a clarification for other readers of the post, Time Machine can restore the macOS if it was included in the TM backup.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203981#macos

From the Apple Support link:

When you restore from a Time Machine backup, you can choose to restore all your files, or restore both the Mac operating system (macOS) and all your files.

If I get a new MBP now and use it for a month will I then restore from my TM backup and then manually move over certain items from the past month from the "new" account to the restored account? I'm guessing the username on the new MBP should be different than the name on the old acct/MBP? I've never done a restore from TM so I don't know all the details.

OP: Check the link in this post to see how to do a TM Restore.