Artie to confirm,
I'm going to remember what you recommend: don't clone back. Always erase and get a new OS.
But then after you do that you are then forced to use setup assistant? Pity you can't just go straight to migration assistant, there should be a check box, "use the same user name as before....?
The discussions about all this have been:
1. One wants to sell their machine.
2. One wants to restore their Mac from an SD clone.
3. One wants to first install a pristine version of the most recent OS that they had been using before, and then to get their information from a backup/clone.
For #1, assuming that the seller will not be supplying any additional software (besides what is contained within the Mac OS (Mail, Safari, etc.)), one would restart their Mac from their SD or CCC clone, run Disk Utility form there to Erase and Format the internal HD/SSD on the machine they are selling, then launch the file "Install OS X El Capitan" contained within the clone (you did remember to have that file), and install that OS onto the empty/formatted internal HD/SSD . When that completes, do nothing else. (One can do this "similarly" by launching the Mac they want to sell in "Target Disk Mode", but that is a little more involved).
For #2, after restarting one's Mac from the SD clone, run SuperDuper!, select "Restore all files", then select "Erase files, then copy files from "the source volume"", and then SD will do the restore. Once that completes, you'll wind up with what your Mac "looked" like (in terms of software, settings, etc.) at the point when you did the SD backup/clone. (artie505 did an excellent job above explaining the process via CCC).
For #3, one would restart their Mac from their SD or CCC clone, run Disk Utility form there to Erase and Format the internal HD/SSD on the machine they are selling, then launch the file "Install OS X El Capitan" contained within the clone (you did remember to have that file), and install that OS onto the empty/formatted internal HD/SSD . Now, here is where it gets a little confusing about the terminology. At this point (ie, while still booted into the clone), Migration Assistant will be presented (skip the "in between" stuff), and then select "From a Mac, Time Machine Backup, or start up disk". You'll then be presented with a screen for you to choose where you want your stuff "migrated"/copied from. One would logically select the device containing the applicable backup (I of course select the one containing the SD backup/clone). Once that process completes, you can re-boot your Mac, and all your account settings, preferences, etc. will be as they were before either 1) your most recent Time Machine backup, or 2) the most recent SD/CCC backup/clone you ran. This is exactly what I did the other day for my MacBook Air machine, via the SD backup/clone I made on Friday.
The differences between #2 and #3 are:
1. For #3, you first erased
and formatted the internal HD/SSD on your machine. For #2 (via SD), you just erased it.
2. For #3, you will first have a fresh, pristine, "virgin" version on the OS, and then it will be "augmented" by the settings, etc. obtained via the restore from the Time Machine backup, or SD/CCC backup/clone.
For #3, after installing the OS, if one reboots their Mac, one will be then presented with Setup Assistant, so that one can setup their Mac (account name, password, etc.). Now if one wants to get their "stuff" from whatever backup they have via Migration Assistant, in order to
not have issues with a different account (or even if one setup their Mac above with the same account name, etc., then follow what artie505 did above.
