I am going to link you to this conversation because it not only talks about what is being backed up but what options are being used. I hope this helps.

http://www.fluther.com/disc/53792/are-you-going-to-upgrade-to-snow-leopard-or-install-it/

I already read that thread, it does not address my question at all.

Here’s another thread you might find useful. I suggest using SuperDuper! to make a clone of your original drive. After reformatting and installing Snow Leopard, use the Mac OS Migration Assistant to bring your Home directory contents and settings back.

http://www.fluther.com/disc/53991/should-i-format-my-hard-disk-tomorrow-and-install-mac-os/

Then I don’t understand your question.

You say you have a Time machine back up. That allows you to determine what you want to back up. It also allows you to determine what you want to restore. You didn’t indicate what you backed up.

Your question then states you want to restore everything just some things. So I pointed you to a link that showed you how to back up your hard drive so as to keep the information like it is. It even references SuperDuper.

Your pretty snippy with my attempt to answer a poorly phrased question from someone who claims expertise in all the listed tags attached to the question.

Backup anything you don’t want to lose then.

If you want to backup your Safari bookmarks, then back them up and put them back when you are done. Same for the keychain and everything else.

Or you could take the other advice here and just restore from your Time Machine backup or use SuperDuper to make a bootable backup and just drag back whatever you want which seems a whole lot easier and smarter to me.

Use the migration assistant. You can pick what you want to back-up.

@Bri_L snippy? Sorry, but the link you posted was only vaguely related to the question. Let me restate. I have a full backup with Time Machine, but it is offsite. I want to do a fresh install, but only want to restore some important plists, the Keychain, and my iTunes Library.

When I restore these, is there any problem I can expect? Based on permissions, user account, etc.

@StellarAirman, Thanks for the help.

@jeffpetersen -

Yes, snippy, you basically said “fuck you, that was useless” which it wasn’t.

what I gave you was a thread that offored you multiple ways to do exactly what @StellarAirman just told you. It was in no way vaguely related.

I could have pointed out, just back up every damn thing and grab what you need but I was trying not to be as crude as you were when you dismissed my attempt to help.

Your “restate” of the question only points out the obvious. You have everything you need to restore what you want.

Wow, lighten up. I said, “I read that, and it does not answer the question”. And it still doesn’t, no matter how many times I read it.

If your going to quote it, quote it right “I already read that thread, it does not address my question at all.” You also thanked another contributor for telling you information that can be found in multiple places on that thread.

That certainly helps me understand your question and issues better.