Does restoring from Time Machine also restore installed applications? I am planning to upgrade my late 2009 MacBook Pro (running Snow Leopard) by replacing the 250GB hard drive with a new 1TB drive. I have been maintaining Time Machine backups.

I plan to install the new drive and do a fresh install of Snow Leopard and then restore using the Migration Assistant. This is my first time with Time Machine 'Restore' so two simple questions:


Will restore, restore my OSX patches and installed applications?
Does Time Machine care if the new Drive is bigger than the original drive?
Yes - if you haven't excluded the /Applications folder from the Time Machine backups. 

As for system patches - you're installing a new OS. Once you finish, load up the Software Update and it'll pull down the most recent Combo Update for you. Actually, it's better to use the combo update than a collection of patches you would have otherwise.

For more on this go to System Preferences &#x2192; Time Machine &#x2192; Options. It'll tell you what, if anything, you've excluded.
No. As long as you have sufficient space, you'll be fine. It doesn't need to be an identical drive.