04-21-2011, 09:57 PM

Hi everyone
I bought my first MacbookPro last summer . It already had bootcamp on it with Win7 but only 30 Gig and the HD is 300 Gig. I would like to increase my Win7 partition but do not have a CD for it . Is there a way to image My Win7 partition on an external HD and boot it from there to see that it is a true bootable image before taking the full drive in OSx and reinstall that image using bootcamp with new size of partition. I Have to use Win7 for a treasury program that runs only in Win7 and enjoy a few other programs on it but I now need more space but not to the point of bying a full version very pricy to me. It needs to be a pretested method of course. Of course I will need to save the whole HD first but does that means it saves bootcamp and Win7 also and does it have to be saved on a Osx based external HD
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with a newbie in this dangerous attempt.

04-22-2011, 12:52 AM

Without a valid DVD including product ID number, your copy of Windows 7 is not legal anyway. I suggest buying a copy and then change the product ID using the Windows 7 activation tool. That will make the copy legal.

You can buy a full install OEM system builders version of Windows 7 Home Premium from NewEgg for $99.99 including free shipping.

You really need the Windows 7 DVD anyway in case you have to reinstall for some reason. As for increasing the size of your Boot Camp partition non-destructively, I suggest buying a copy of CampTune 9 from Paragon Software. It's $19.95 and will do the resizing without loss of data.

04-22-2011, 07:29 AM

what is a system builders version. How come it is even cheaper than an upgrade version

04-22-2011, 08:08 AM

Originally Posted by cedarmoose

what is a system builders version. How come it is even cheaper than an upgrade version

In a long-standing tradition amongst small computer shops that build their own computers, an "OEM for System Builders" is intended to be bundled with a new computer for resale to a customer. So, it's a little cheaper than normal, but is only intended to be sold with a new computer (that doesn't stop most vendors from selling it to ordinary consumers). The only thing you need to be concerned about is that the license is officially tied to the computer it was sold with (i.e. you can not reactivate it on a different machine, once it's been activated on the original), and also that you can not do an upgrade with an OEM version - it is only useful for clean installs.

04-22-2011, 09:12 AM

would there be an other option as creating a third partition for storing data without having to reinstall win7

and what about my last question I had about saving an image of my HD. Would it saved both system as they are now and be still bootable as it is now for both OS