You have several options for restoring data from backup. I don't know the exact options, but the following should be quite close:
You can restore the full system, effectively not reinstalling from scratch. This will not have any real effect in your situation.
You can choose to restore the applications you installed to /Applications
. This depends on your personal preferences.
You can opt to only restore your user accounts. If you keep your personal applications in ~/Applications
, you will have reinstalled your system and restored your applications, documents and other data. This last option is my personal favorite and I've used it a few times with great success. Remember to reinstall applications stored in /Applications
, such as iTunes, iWork, and VMware Fusion.
Only slightly related (as a clean install might optimize the disk contents): see About disk optimization with Mac OS X. This tells you that disk optimization won't help a lot, if at all.
– Arjan – 2010-12-02T12:28:15.460