Does a time machine restore affect a new admin account and HD name?

[countfufu]

When I am clean installing OS X on a new hard drive and asked to create an administrator account, should I use the full name, account name and password from my old account or should I use new names and a new password?
Once the admin account is made and I restore my data from time machine, would the admin info from the back up replace the new admin info [renaming the admin account] or would i have two admin accounts?

Also, during the formatting stage of the disk installation [during boot up in the disk utility>partition section] if I name the drive 'new drive', will the HD be renamed 'Macintosh HD' after I restore the backup since this was the name of the old drive?

 

[chscag]

If you're going to restore from Time Machine or use the automatic Migration Assistant when setting up a new machine, do not create an account on the new hard drive or machine. If you do you'll wind up with two accounts and lots of confusion. As for the hard drive naming, don't name it all since the Time Machine restore will take care of that for you.

 

[countfufu]

Thannk you. So once I boot from the USB and choose 'restore from time machine' this option will install OS X, is this correct?
I had some internet disconnection issues and an apple customer care rep suggested I erase and reinstall the OS so I'm wondering if that problem would be restored along with the other data

 

[Slydude]

It depends upon what was causing the problem. If the problem was due to a corrupted networking file or improper setting the problem might well be duplicated by restoring from a backup. Although Migration Assistant will let you choose what to restore a better first step might be to figure out what is causing the internet disconnections.

 

[ron4mac]

If you think there is some software or configuration issue causing your problem(s) then, yes, doing a Time Machine restore is very likely to just continue the issue. You can perform a clean install on the machine and then use Migration Assistant to pull in your user account(s) from the Time Machine backup. Once doing it that way, if you are still experiencing issues, create another account on your machine to see if the issue is in the new account, as well. In fact, before you reinstall the system you might want to create a new account to see whether your connection issue could be coming from something attached to your normal account (did Apple have you try that?).

[edit: that was pretty sly of you dude .. clicking submit before me ]

 

[countfufu]

the apple rep didn't suggest a new account, but making a new account and monitoring the connection seems to be the best way to determine how deep the issue was.
Just to confirm, I would do a clean install of OS X with a new admin account [password and name], and once the OS is running I would only restore files and applications to avoid restoring possible corrupt files, is this correct?

What files and preferences are saved in an administrator account?

 

[countfufu]

I took a quick look at migration assistant, it seems i can't restore my files without restoring the user account. If i restored everything except the network settings, would that prevent any corrupt files from being transferred?

I would also think that replacing the old hard drive with a new one would solve such problems

 

[ron4mac]

How about this for a strategy:

Perform a clean install on your system, creating an account "newadmin" (for example). Apply all software updates and use the machine for enough time as "newadmin" that you can determine whether it is functioning the way that you think it should. Once that is established, use Migration Assistant to pull in your old account and use that account for a while to see if it is performing equally well. Finally, use Migration Assistant to restore your applications and check for proper operation again. Once satisfied, you can delete the "newadmin" account.

 

[Slydude]

I took a quick look at migration assistant, it seems i can't restore my files without restoring the user account. If i restored everything except the network settings, would that prevent any corrupt files from being transferred?

I would also think that replacing the old hard drive with a new one would solve such problems

It probably would given tat your problems are network-related. It's certainly less time consuming than some other alternative such as a clean install.

Replacing the hard drive would only solve the problem if the problem were due in part to hard drive problems. If you do have a corrupted network file and you restore that file to a new hard drive the file is likely still corrupted and could cause problems.

 

[countfufu]

sounds good. so here's the plan:

1. partition a new hard drive and clean install os x with a new admin account

2. on the new account run migration assistant and restore the old account. i assume once it is restored i will see two accounts everytime i boot up.

3. after some time i can log into the old account and go to system preferences>users and groups and delete the new account if i am sure that the old one has no problems

is this okay?

 

[ron4mac]

sounds good. so here's the plan:

1. partition a new hard drive and clean install os x with a new admin account

2. on the new account run migration assistant and restore the old account. i assume once it is restored i will see two accounts everytime i boot up.

3. after some time i can log into the old account and go to system preferences>users and groups and delete the new account if i am sure that the old one has no problems

is this okay?

The plan seems sound to me except that I recommend that you take some time to verify that it is running without any connection issues before you do migrate any old stuff in. If you create checkpoints in the process, if problems return, you'll have a better idea from whence they come.

 

[countfufu]

okay. will there be any problems with the name of the hard drive once the back is restored and when the new admin account is deleted?

 

[ron4mac]

okay. will there be any problems with the name of the hard drive once the back is restored and when the new admin account is deleted?

There should be no problem with the name of the hard drive (except that MS Office doesn't like special characters in the name).

 

[countfufu]

thank you. one more question: if the new hard drive is unformatted and i partition it before replacing the drive, once the new drive is in the mac, do i need to erase the drive during the boot up/disk utility stage?

 

[ron4mac]

thank you. one more question: if the new hard drive is unformatted and i partition it before replacing the drive, once the new drive is in the mac, do i need to erase the drive during the boot up/disk utility stage?

You don't need to do anything to the new drive before installing it. It can be partitioned/formatted as part of the OS install.

 

[countfufu]

I installed the new drive but it wasn't appearing in disk utility. I figured it wasn't formatted so i had to get a sata adapter.
the instructions on the OWC site for the HDD [which i should have read in the first place] mention partitioning the drive and the whole GUID & mac os journeled thing