[mcbksd]

That was a moment of brainfreeze.
In the post above, I just realized that Dave was referring to another scenario where a new HD was being installed, and he was recommending the user to format it for proper OS X installation.

I'm thinking of doing an external-boot-into-SD and then a restore. I think if I need to restore, I might need to purchase. If that's the case, no problemo. I just want to make sure that this is the best resort (as opposed to disk-utility-restore or migration).

For some reason or the other, I'm nervous of doing a SD restore. Therefore I'm also considering the option of doing a manual file by file document transfer. Given that it was a new macbook that I was then exchanged for another one, I only had about 5 -10 applications installed, which I don't think are too much of a time consumption.

Thx.