Complete user account failure

[Comprose]

After much telephone time with an Apple tech, plus an Apple product specialist, it appears that somehow the re-install simply did not take. With an additional problem of the password not being honored I had to make another re-install, an erase-and-install - - the password issue prohibited an archive-and-install. This worked, but I had to enter all new information, settings, etc.

Now to work the backup again. I'm assuming that the first backup try did not erase any data. Is that true?

So, what do you suggest for next steps? Would it make sense to re-install (or transfer over from another Mac) all my previous applications before doing any restoring? And how do I go about the actual restore?

Appreciate your helpng with this.

Mike