Restore from clone without system?

[webatomic]

My internal startup drive died this morning. I do have a bootable clone as well as Time Machine backups. It was recommended to me to install a new drive and do a fresh install of Yosemite, then restore from the TM backup. Well now, 4-5 hours later it's hanging on 11 minutes to go. I'll let it run over night if I need to, but am already anticipating having to go to plan B. Can I restore from the cloned drive to the new drive without restoring any of the system files? I think it would be best to have a fresh install of Yosemite rather than copying over whatever was cloned from a failing drive.

[dnanian]

Sure. Clean install Yosemite (erase and install), then -- when it asks if you want to restore/copy from another Mac -- point at the SuperDuper! Backup volume. It'll bring in your applications and data, and leave the OS in place.

[webatomic]

Thanks. Will this work if I'm booted from the SD Backup volume?

[dnanian]

I assume Yosemite will let you select the drive to erase-and-install on (you may need to erase separately with Disk Utility), so, yes.