Time Capsule vs External Hard Drive

[shahrezsyed]

I'm about to do a clean install of OSX Mountain Lion as it is running buggy otherwise. I wanted to know if I need to back up my computer to an external Hard drive if I already have time machine backups? Will restoring from the time machine backups reintroduce the hidden 'junk' you get rid of when doing a clean install...?

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm about to do a clean install of OSX Mountain Lion as it is running buggy otherwise. I wanted to know if I need to back up my computer to an external Hard drive if I already have time machine backups? Will restoring from the time machine backups reintroduce the hidden 'junk' you get rid of when doing a clean install...?

If your desired end result is a true "clean install", then you do not want to restore from Time Machine. That will put everything right back where it was, hypothetical bugs and all.

A true clean install involves erasing the drive then reinstalling the OS, followed my manually moving all apps and data back and manually reconfiguring all settings.

You can do that by accessing the Time Machine backup and copying only specific folders like /Documents for example. But don't restore.

 

[shahrezsyed]

Thanks! Saves a lot of time!
No need to backup ALL OVER AGAIN!