Hi Matt, thanks for the reply and suggestions.

On Nov 17, 2012, at 3:38 PM, Matt Penna <[email protected]> wrote:

> Others may have a better suggestion, but I always recommend using Migration 
> Assistant during the first boot after a system rebuild. 

I have used it in the past both successfully and unsuccessfully; the problem is 
that I don't have a reliable clone that is anything like current and if there's 
something in the old home directory that is corrupted then the Time Machine 
backup is likewise corrupted. So; what I did was create the first admin user 
and log in as that user…then created a folder in /Users with the username for 
my daily driver non admin account. Into this I didn't copy everything over but 
just ~/Library/Mail, ~/Music and ~/Library/Keychains so that I wouldn't have to 
download mail and iTunes apps.

Then I created my daily driver account with the same name as the folder created 
above. System Preferences (when you do this) sees a pre-existing 
/Users/whatever home directory and offers to use it for you. If you say yes 
then (according to Apple and something I've done frequently in the past) it 
properly applies permissions for the newly created user to the selected home 
directory instead of creating a new one.
> 
> Unless you are copying over simple content such as documents, photos, et 
> cetera, it's best not to do a restore manually, especially if you're trying 
> to manage keychains or other items that are tightly tied in with system 
> security.
> 
Apple has the procedure I used above in one of their tech bulletins although 
they do say that Migration Assistant or Time Machine is "better" without really 
explaining why.

> Is there a reason you did not use Migration Assistant? It should be able to 
> import from a Time Machine backup, as well as other sources.

See above; I could go back to a 2 month old Clone which I'm reasonably sure is 
OK; but then I'm back into the "have to download all of the mail and iTunes 
Store apps again"…and since we live in an RV with limited bandwidth (both speed 
and monthly allotment) I was hoping to do that. At worst (but I'm not really 
looking forward to doing it this way) I can delete the user and home directory 
then recreate it while I'm at the library or somewhere with decently fast 
internet and no throughput limit. I can then download all the mail and iTunes 
stuff again. As I said though, I'm trying not to have to do it the hard way.

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