Is it easy to mount my Time Capsule after a clean install (without any restore) so that I can copy individual files from it?

Question

People say it is possible but I am suspicious. I want to clean install and start fresh with nothing. Then I can access my Time Capsule that has my backup and copy any files I want. How easy or difficult is to use my Time Capsule as a external hard drive from where I can copy stuff? What I am particularly worried about is:

1) Will my new, clean and fresh Mountain Lion installation be able to recognize and mount Time Capsule on Finder?

2) Will I be able to easily locate, browse and copy the files from my last backup to my computer?

3) Will I have any permission problems to copy the files?

4) Will my new computer try to use Time Capsule to make backups and wipe out my previous backup? (that would be very bad!)

Thanks!

Answer 1

To browse your old backups after a fresh install, make sure the Time Machine icon is shown in the menu bar, click the icon, and choose Browse other Backup Disks. This way you can copy specific data and applications to the new computer.

You can give your computer a new name after the fresh install. This should keep the old backups separated from new backups.

Answer 2

All the below answers assume that you are using TimeMachine for your backups on your TimeCapsule.

1) Will my new, clean and fresh Mountain Lion installation be able to recognize and mount Time Capsule on Finder?

Yes

2) Will I be able to easily locate, browse and copy the files from my last backup to my computer?

Yes - you will be able to find whole directory structure in folders with various time-date stamps.

3) Will I have any permission problems to copy the files?

No

4) Will my new computer try to use Time Capsule to make backups and wipe out my previous backup? (that would be very bad!)

Your new install may ask about using TimeCapsule for TimeMachine backups. If you have a new hard drive, it will start a fresh structure. If you have the same hard drive, it will probably continue with the same backup you currently have. But it will not wipe out previous backups, beyond the normal default backup intervals (saving once an hour for 24 hrs, once a day for a month, once a week after that).