Winclone error when copying Windows Partition

Hello,

I have been trying to find the answer to this question for several weeks now, and can't seem to figure out what is happening.

I have a 213 GB Windows partition built under Boot Camp. I have been using this partition for several years, without any incident. I have done a complete chkdsk run on it several times, and the drive appears to be clean. I have also turned off Time Machine on the Mac OSX side (Snow Leopard) to attempt to get a good backup)

Using WinClone or even Disk Utility and attempting to backup the partition, I get the following message after it gets through 85% of the backup:

hdiutil: create failed - Input/output error
return value of hdiutil create -puppetstrings -srcdevice "/dev/disk0s3" "/Volumes/Mac OS Partition/PC_Partition_Backup.winclone/Windows" 1>&2 is 256

hdiutil create -puppetstrings -srcdevice "/dev/disk0s3" "/Volumes/Mac OS Partition/PC_Partition_Backup.winclone/Windows" 1>&2 did not complete successfully
cleaning up: Mounting Disk
Volume 1 on /dev/disk0s3 mounted


I am trying to back this up to an external Seagate Harddrive that I just purchased (although the backup still fails even if I try to put it on the MacOSX harddrive in the same place). I partitioned the Seagate drive into 2 partitions (one for Mac - Mac OS Extended Journaled (1 terabyte)) and (one for WIndows - Windows NT Filesystem). I am using Winclone to put it on the Mac OS Extended Journaled side, which is what Apple told me to do. Each partition is 1 terabyte in size, so should be more than sufficient to hold the backup.

What would cause the backup to get to 85% and fail? What more can I do to get this to work?

One other tidbit of information: When I've tried to use ntbackup on the Windows side to make a disk image of my Windows hard drive, it also fails about 85% of the way through the backup. What is so magical about this 85% where it is failing no matter what I use to back up the Windows side?

Thanks,

Robert

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Bad news alas Robert have never got Winclone to work after many attempts. As you found out when you think you have a copy it simply closes. Windows has an anti-piracy measure inbuilt to prevent installation on an external drive.

Think your solution may be installing the Seagate, format and install OS X and then set up Bootcamp on that drive. For what it is worth have also tried using Windows back up all files and it also does not work on a new Windows install.

So now I'm really confused.....why do so many people say that WinClone worked great for them? Are they all doing something different?

As to your 2nd sentence.....if I install a new OS X on the Seagate with a new Bootcamp, how would I get the current Windows partition over there and how would it all work when I boot up the machine?

My suggestion would be a clean install of Bootcamp on the Seagate as I have never been able to clone the Windows partition alas. You may want a look at Acronis True Image software but have never got that to work either.

Am of the opinion Windows running via BootCamp is just not made to be cloned.