What exactly will a Time Machine Backup Restore to my machine?

I am sure this is a fairly common question but I am having a hard time finding out a straight answer to it. So I own a Mid 2009 15” MacBook pro and I love it, performance wise it is great with a 2.8 Core 2 Duo, 4 Gb of DDR3 1066 and the 9400/9600 GT Graphics are plenty to run my 30” monitor at 2560 x 1600 with ease. But of course there is a huge bottleneck in this machine and that is the Slowwwww 5400 RPM 500 Gb Fujitsu Hard Drive. I want to replace this drive with an 80 GB Intel X-18 SSD that I have acquired from an HP laptop that no longer needs it. The drive is a 1.8” micro SATA drive, but I purchased a 1.8” to 2.5” Caddy from NewModeUS for $35

1.8 - 2.5 Drive Adapter 3.3v support (MicroSATA to SATA)Black [SATA-MICROSATA3.3] - $35.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

This not only takes care of the interface/power conversion it supports 3.3 Volt drives, which almost all SSDs are, but it also makes the 1.8” drive the exact same dimensions of a typical 2.5” drive. I have already tried it out in my desktop and it benchmarks just as this drive should, super fast! 80 Gb is plenty of storage for me on a laptop, I will keep all my media on the 500 Gb which I am going to put in an external enclosure and carry around in my bag at all times. So for right now I have most of the logistical hardware stuff figured out but where I need a little help is the migration.

Sure I could reload everything from scratch but I would honestly rather not do that and the honestly the thought of doing it makes me put this project off every time just because I need the machine for work and cannot really afford to have it down for a few days, making this a weekend project. I am very particular about how my machines are setup as well and usually do a decent amount of customizations and tweaks to make the OS easier to use for me. In order to avoid a fresh start I was first very excited about the thought of cloning my existing drive onto my SSD using SuperDooper

SuperDuper!

This seemed like the perfect solution, in theory everything would be the same when I installed the SSD and booted up, all my data, installed applications and settings would be untouched! Yay right, well then I started reading on some forums that for whatever reason cloning a mechanical drive onto an SDD in a no no and could cause issues, therefore the best bet to is to start with a fresh install of OSX. Damn! Can anyone prove that theory wrong? Has anyone cloned to an SSD before without any issues that you know of? Because I would love to go this route, but if not my plan B is to use my Time Machine back and restore that to my new install.

Now this brings me to the question in the title of this thread, what exactly will Time Machine restore if I have a full up to date backup of my machine and I do as it runs regularly and backs up to a 32 GB SD card (For now until I outgrow it) that is always in my machine. I don’t have a ton of data; in fact my HDD only has 31 Gb used, while my Time Machine backup drive has 26 Gb used. That leads me to believe that most of the data is in that backup, I mean it does take a snapshot of your entire system so I don’t see why it would not be able to put that data back just as it backed it up, like a system image. While I know all my data and personal files will be restored what about installed applications? Will I need to reload all of them? Not the end of the world as I always save the installer but it does take time, esp. with things like the Adobe and Office Suites. How about settings are certain ones remembered? Monitors configurations, wallpapers, dock shortcuts, color labels, background colors, Safari and Chrome Bookmarks, ect. The list could go on but I really just want to know what to expect if I install OSX fresh and then choose to restore from a Time Machine backup, I am sure it will save me a lot of time but may not be as ideal as using SuperDooper or CarbonCopy Cloner.

Any insight here would be much appreciated as if I get some reassuring responses I would like to start the OS re-load tonight and then that way I will be forced to finish up the rest of it tomorrow before next week starts. And again if anyone has used SuperDooper or CCC to migrate to a new SSD and thinks that what I have read if bogus please let me know as I will certainly use that instead, I may try it for the hell of it anyway, what is the worst that could happen? I will still have all of my data safe on the original drive should something fail. Thanks much in advance.

 

I don't really feel like reading all of that...

so to answer the main thread question.... Time Machine backs up everything...

You can do a full restore from a time machine backup and your machine is just like it was before... even if your doing it to a new hard drive.

if moving to a SSD, you can install a fresh copy of OSX onto the SSD, then use Migration Assistant to copy over apps and program settings and documents and stuff from a Time Machine backup, so it will be exactly like you had it before... its an easy option in Migration Assistant

 

Thanks for your reply, sounds promising. Exactly like I had it before is what I would like to achieve, have you ever done this yourself personally or jut read about it? I am slightly worried about how a lot of my licensed software will carry over and if I will have problems re-registering each app and have to spend hours on the phone with each vender explaining that I reloaded my OS.

I am still very interested on why people recommend against using cloning/imaging software to migrate to an SSD in particular. And if anyone has had good luck using a cloning tool to migrate to an SSD.

 

I used CopyCatX to transfer from the original hard drive to an SSD.I had no problems, thought I did have to re-activate my Windows 7 (Bootcamp install). If your software does a hardware check as part of its activation security, any method you use may require re-activation.

 

I upgraded my HDD from the stock 160GB to a 500GB drive. I used TM to restore my setup and it went back in exactly as before. Wallpaper, Pref. settings, dock configuration, apps, etc. all just like I had it before upgrading.

 

I used SuperDuper to clone an image from my HDD onto my new SSD. I wanted to try it out this way rather the re-install everything.

Put it this way, the performance Im getting from the SSD is good enough for me to not bother with a fresh re-install now!

I did notice that the initial response wasn't so great, but after a couple of reboots everything suddenly started going super fast!

Boot time with HDD - 28.5 secs
Boot time with SSD - 21.7 secs
Boot time now after SSD has settld - 16.9 secs

Opening Photoshop CS4 with HDD - 11.1 secs
with SSD - just over 3 secs!

Opening Word 2008 with HDD - 9 secs
with SSD - just over 2 secs!

All of this is with a clone using SuperDuper. The SSD settles down after a few hours usage, and just flies!

You may want to read through this thread I posted, which has videos to the install and tests etc...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/app...40gb-vertex-ssd-installed-video-included.html

Once I start my development work on my MAC I will need to start using Time Machine, but I plan to buy a Time Capsule so I can use that for my backups. Even then, I will probably still keep the odd SuperDuper image just because its convenient to boot from it etc if need be.

 

Thanks for the replies, Interesting to know that a few people have cloned their mechanical drive to an SSD and seem to have no issues. On the other hand if I do a google search about the topic I find threads like this one...

"WARNING! USING SUPERDUPER TO CLONE FROM AN HDD TO AN SSD MIGHT SERIOUSLY DAMAGE THE HEALTH OF YOUR SSD!"

Apple - Support - Discussions - Warning! Using SuperDuper to clone from ...

Here is another topic I have found with people arguing against cloning your drive...

CCC Clone to SSD really slow - Mac Forums

And here is one where people are for the most part recommending it, and then the thread goes off topic

Apple - Support - Discussions - Best SSD for MacBook Pro ...

So I am pretty confused here on if cloning the drive is safe to do, my gut tells me it would work fine and even if it didn't I have my data backed up so I would not loose anything. But for some reason my OCD is nagging at me to just do a clean install and restore from Time Machine to avoid potential issues mentioned on those threads. I will go make a post on the SuperDooper forums and see what those guys say as well.

 

lol - that last link was a thread created by me on the Apple forums before I purchased my SSD!

It seems some people have problems during the clone process - the process doesn't finish etc. However, I notice from some of the posts in the links you posted, it seems people are trying to clone from one system to another new system. This is bound to cause problems. If you are changing the drive in the same system, a copy should be fine, as it has all your settings etc from that system. Nether way can brick a drive completely, as all you are doing is putting data onto the drive. And since all you are doing is putting data onto the drive, I fail to see how it could damage the health of the drive - I mean, isnt the drive for putting data on in the first place?!

So, for example, if you try to clone from one MacBook to your new MacBook - 2 separate systems - this will cause problems.
However, if you are taking an image of one system, and then changing the HDD and putting the image back onto the new drive in the SAME system, I cant see why there would be any problems. Its the same system, with the same hardware!

People told me I should re-install from scratch, but I decided to try my SuperDuper image first. If it messed up I could always reinstall after. As I said, I didn't have any problems at all. Stuck my new drive in and boot off of my SuperDuper image. The image itself copied across perfectly fine, and Ive been enjoying my SSD drive since!

The only issue I had, and Im not even sure if this is related, is that the new SSD didnt boot as fast as I thought it would at first. But after a few hours use everything settled in fine, and the SSD just took off! Im not sure if it re-organised itself or something, but it suddenly starting going much faster, as you can see from my videos.

 

The problem people try to get to is...

SSDs store information differently.. they are not a circular platter that spins to read off data. When you make a clone that copies everything over identically, it copies stuff in a very very messed up arrangement for a SSD, which ends up slowing down your SSD, and putting a lot more work on it, which can shorten its life some. This only holds true for cloning software that just does byte by byte copies.. it doesn't affect like.. copying information over a network or from 1 HDD to a SSD in the same machine as far as I understand, just if its a direct "clone" type operation.

 

Ahhh good point I didn't even pick up on the fact that the people in those threads are trying to clone from one system to a different system! Then yes I would expect that to cause problems, if I were to say try and clone my Mid 2009 MBP and then put that drive with my image on it into a new Core i5 model MBP I doubt it would work or go smoothly. There are too many differences in hardware, drivers, ect. for that to work right.

I don't know see how it would cause an issue either, as it is really no different than copying files over to a hard drive, lets say you could do a copy of your entire HDD over to a new SSD and keep all the boot files intact that it would not be much different. I just came across the type of info I listed above and wanted to research it a little before I decided to do it just to be on the safe side.

I am going to give SuperDooper a try, I mean hell I purchased a license for it to use it for this reason, I am sure there is plenty more info on their own forums debunking most of the cases where people ran into problems as well. But I figure I have my Time Machine backup so worst case if the clone process does not work right and somehow destroys the data on my original boot disc then I still have my Time Machine backup safe on another drive and I will then just do a clean install and restore my data from that.

I will be sure to report back when I try this and let you guys know how it goes! I hope I will have time to do it today, it should not take very long as I only have 30 Gb of data used on my current Hard Drive. At the least I should be able to get the SSD cloned and if that is successful installing it only takes 10 mins and then in should hopefully just work.

 

Well I was able to clone my drive successfully with SuperDuper, everything seemed to go fine, no errors and it took about an hour to finish. But when I put the SSD in the machine and tried to boot it up I just get a white screen and nothing else. I tried clearing the PRAM and NVRAM but no luck with that either. I have no idea why but this SSD is not recognized by the disk utility when I boot from the OSX Install disc so I cannot even do a fresh install and this is driving me nuts. I have tried so many things to get this drive to work but I am about ready to give up on it. One last thing I may trying is downgrading to EFI 1.6, as I have read some SSD drives have issues with 1.7 but I am not too hopefully.

 

Follow the procedure in my video.....

1. Install the SSD into the machine first.
2. Boot off of the SuperDuper image from a secondary HDD/enclosure.
3. Restore the image across to the SSD.
4. Shut down.
5. Remove the drive with SuperDuper image on.
6. When you boot press the Option button, as mine didnt boot off of the SSD by default.
7. Select the SSD to boot off of.
8. Once in Mac OSX, go into system preferences and set your startup disc to your SSD.

Job done.

Try from point 6 onwards first. I also had a white screen when I started up, and it was just because the drive wasnt set as my startup drive. You need to manually boot off of it, and then in system preferences set it as your main startup drive.