Time Machine behavior after full restore
 

Hi Dave,

I couldn't find an answer to this is the docs or FAQ.

I'm considering doing my first-ever SD! full restore to my MBP drive. I ran into some instability yesterday and there's evidence that the drive (at least free space) is quite fragmented, possibly causing the general drive slowness I've been experiencing.

So I'm thinking about doing an Erase then Copy from an external SD! clone in order to get the defragmentation side benefit.

My question: after an Erase then Copy, how will Time Machine behave? Will the entire contents be considered new or will TM pick up where it left off and do a normal incremental backup?

Thanks

It will likely consider the entire drive to be new.

Ah, OK. Thanks.

In that case I'll probably bite the bullet and do a clean install of Snow Leopard, which will be more work but will give this guy a fresh start. Not quite ready for that though.

I've been running from the backup drive for a day and may continue that way for now since it's a bit speedier anyway. I expect I can just do a Smart Update back to the internal drive when I want to go back. Correct?

Yes, just a copy in the other direction.