Can I restore Time Machine backup to Macintosh HD?

iMac late 2013 10.13.6

I’d like to restore from a Time Machine backup (which is on an external hard drive) and it’s asking me which disk I want it to be restored to.

The only disc available is Macintosh HD, which has 999.35 GB space, as I have just reinstalled my operating system.

There is a warning when I choose this disk however, and I wanted to know if I should use an external hard drive instead?

Will it essentially delete my operating system if I restore the backup to Macintosh HD?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 17, 2023 10:23 AM

Top-ranking reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

31,307 points

Posted on Oct 17, 2023 10:36 AM

Yes, the normal restore from a Time Machine backup will be applied to the startup drive "Macintosh HD".

The whole point of restoring from backup is usually to wipe the drive and apply the contents of a backup to that drive.

If you don't wish to replace the contents of the startup drive with what is in that backup, then by all means, apply the restore to an external drive. If you are happy with the external drive as a boot drive after that, then you could run the restore process again and apply it to the startup drive, if you wish.

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Can I restore Time Machine backup to Macintosh HD?

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