Cloning a drive with a Bootcamp partition

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Ok. I'm so totally lost on this issue I'm not even sure I put the topic in the right section. What I'm trying to do is create a clone/exact copy of my current HD so I can then use that copy to install onto a new HD. Sounds easy but here's the trick. I running bootcamp with Windows 7 and files on that partition i dont want to lose. From what I understand, time machine only copies OSX and doesnt even touch my windows partition. I would like to just completely copy the entire drive and then reload that info onto a new drive. I found this website, EASEUS Disk Copy: Free Disk Copy, Disk Clone, Partition Copy Software. Sector by Sector for hard drive backup freeware. , that's cross platform but I don't know anything about mac Bios or any of that and I'm not sure it would work. I guess I could always just save all of the windows files and move them back after reinstalling windows but that would take a long time. I also thought about just trying to create a recovery disk for the windows partition. Will bootcamp work with a recovery disk? If so that might be the easiest option if the easeus program linked above doesn't work. And then I would need to know whats the best way to copy the Windows partition to run as a recovery disk. Any help on this would be appreciated. If there's a link for this type of problem too that would be cool, I just couldn't find it.
 
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Lbatson21
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Anyone have any ideas?
 

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I think what you're looking for is WinClone. This will basically encapsulate your Boot Camp partition into a single file. Then use something like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the OS X partition to the new disk. Once you've done that, use Boot Camp Assistant to recreate the Boot Camp partition, and then use WinClone to restore the image to that new partition.
 
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Perhaps you may be able to set up an external HDD and partition it in two partitions, format one for Windows and one Mac OS Extended Journalled, back up Windows partition with Winclone and Mac OS with SuperDuper.
 
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Thats a good idea. I'm going to try that when I get my external so I can back up both time machine and the windows partition to the same drive to see if that works.
 
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Just remember the partitions will need to be formatted for their respective operating system.
 
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I have a similar issue except I had to make an image because my hard drive started to die. I managed to get an image of windows 7 from my bootcamp partition using winclone but now I cannot restore it on to the new HDD even though I have partitioned the HDD using bootcamp and formatted it to ntfs.

I have attached copy of the winclone log

Tue Nov 2 22:19:51 CST 2010: Partition is : /dev/disk0s3
Tue Nov 2 22:19:51 CST 2010
Tue Nov 2 22:19:51 CST 2010: Restoring:
Tue Nov 2 22:19:51 CST 2010: '/Applications/Winclone.app/Contents/Resources/winclone.perl' -restore -use_asr -copy_bcd '/Applications/Winclone.app/Contents/Resources/BCD' -disk_device /dev/disk0 -ntfs_partition /dev/disk0s3 -v -update_bootini -q -image_dir='/Volumes/Winclone image/win7image.winclone' -gptrefresh_path='/Applications/Winclone.app/Contents/Resources' -ntfstools_dir=/Library/NTFSProgs >> ~/Library/Logs/Winclone.log 2>&1 &
restoring.....
getting fdisk info.....
validating partition type.....
checking image size.....
image size file exists, opening.....
reading image file.../Volumes/Winclone image/win7image.winclone/size..
read image file.../Volumes/Winclone image/win7image.winclone/size..
done calculating..
done checking size..
Unmounting /dev/disk0s3
/usr/sbin/diskutil unmount "/dev/disk0s3"return value of unmount is 0

==============mounting sparse image==============
/usr/bin/hdiutil attach -nomount "/Volumes/Winclone image/win7image.winclone/Windows.sparsebundle"
diskimages-helper(671,0x100781000) malloc: *** error for object 0x100115020: pointer being freed was not allocated
*** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
hdiutil: attach failed - No child processes

disk device is
=====restoring image from disk image=============

"/Library/NTFSProgs/ntfsclone" --rescue -f -f -O "/dev/disk0s3" 1>&2
ntfsclone v2.0.0 (libntfs 10:0:0)
ERROR: You must specify a device file.

Usage: ntfsclone [OPTIONS] SOURCE
Efficiently clone NTFS to a sparse file, image, device or standard output.

-o, --output FILE Clone NTFS to the non-existent FILE
-O, --overwrite FILE Clone NTFS to FILE, overwriting if exists
-s, --save-image Save to the special image format
-r, --restore-image Restore from the special image format
--rescue Continue after disk read errors
-m, --metadata Clone *only* metadata (for NTFS experts)
--ignore-fs-check Ignore the filesystem check result
-f, --force Force to progress (DANGEROUS)
-h, --help Display this help

If FILE is '-' then send the image to the standard output. If SOURCE is '-'
and --restore-image is used then read the image from the standard input.

Developers' email address: [email protected]
Linux NTFS homepage: http://www.linux-ntfs.org
return value of "/Library/NTFSProgs/ntfsclone" --rescue -f -f -O "/dev/disk0s3" 1>&2 is 256

"/Library/NTFSProgs/ntfsclone" --rescue -f -f -O "/dev/disk0s3" 1>&2 did not complete successfully
cleaning up: Mounting Disk
Volume (null) on /dev/disk0s3 mounted
Tue Nov 2 22:19:55 CST 2010

Does anyone have any ideas why it wont restore and how to correct this??
 
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same problem as sparas...

I have the exact same problem that sparas experienced. I did a backup of my windows partition on an old hard drive with winclone, then I got the exact same error that sparas did when I tried to "restore" the backed up file onto the new drive's partition.

Sparas - Were you able to solve the problem somehow? And if so, can you tell me what you did?

Thanks,
carlfino...
 

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chscag

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I have the exact same problem that sparas experienced. I did a backup of my windows partition on an old hard drive with winclone, then I got the exact same error that sparas did when I tried to "restore" the backed up file onto the new drive's partition.

I can't understand why folks are still trying to use WinClone to make an image of their Boot Camp partition. WinClone is no longer being developed and can be unstable resulting in the problem you and others have experienced.

It's even harder to understand when trying to make an image of Win 7 since Win 7 includes a very easy to use imaging and cloning utility which works well. Just select backup from the start menu and follow directions.

The only thing different is that you must clone the image to a NTFS formatted drive. To restore the image, use your Win 7 DVD to boot the machine and follow directions for restore.

Read the Microsoft Instructions from this LINK.
 
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I can't understand why folks are still trying to use WinClone to make an image of their Boot Camp partition. WinClone is no longer being developed and can be unstable resulting in the problem you and others have experienced.

It's even harder to understand when trying to make an image of Win 7 since Win 7 includes a very easy to use imaging and cloning utility which works well. Just select backup from the start menu and follow directions.

I agree, but would like to add that I've experienced one (1) rather big mishap using the built-in Win 7 backup solution on a Mac. The setup was an iMac 24" 2.93GHz running Mac OS X 10.5.7 and Boot Camp. The 100GB 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium setup was backed up using the built-in Windows imaging utility to an external USB-connected 1TB Seagate disk, formatted using Windows 7 to NTFS on an MBR table.

After some time I needed to "revive" my Win 7 installation: I had installed and uninstalled a lot of software I use for testing of my software projects, and Windows become more and more sluggish. After booting from the Windows installation DVD I chose the "Repair your computer" option, and used the USB backup as source. After that the computer booted into (the internal) Win 7 without any problem, and all seemed fine. Unfortunately the Windows repair software also corrupted my Mac's HFS Plus partition in the process, and as it turned out I was happy that I had a backup of my Mac OS X partition as well, and not only the Windows one...

This might have been a one-time lapse: since then I've used the Win 7 imaging/cloning utility a couple of times, and on different Mac hardware setups, and it's always been working as expected. However, even one failure is one too many, if the user haven't got a fairly recent backup.
 

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I can't explain why your OS X boot sector became corrupt when you restored as that has not been my experience. However, you might want to try a PRAM - NVRAM reset if that should ever happen again.

But of course the best protection is to backup everything as you did.
 

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I had just been used to Winclone and just kept using it. I've used it twice in the last couple of months without issue restoring my Win7 to new drives.

Guess I should try the Win7 native backup utility.
 
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How to clone / restore a drive with bootcamp and multiple partitions:

There might be different ways. This two alternatives worked for me on a 2011 Intel-based Mac Pro (Quad Xeon). Its original 2 TB boot disk contained 4 partitions:

1. Mac OS 10.6.8 Snow Leopard (HFS+)
2. Mac Data Partition (HFS+)
3. Windows Data Partition (NTFS)
4. Bootcamp hosting Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (NTFS)

I cloned this configuration to another hard disk of the same size (2 TB). At some point I used the program "iPartition" which is about 45$. You don't need this if your hard disc contains only two partitions (Mac & Bootcamp). If you have multiple partitions and use "iPartition" it might be a smart idea to display, grab and print out the partition table for future reference prior to starting the procedure described below.

1. Back up the Mac portion via Time Machine to an another hard drive (e.g. external USB disk.)
2. For backing up the Windows partitions I used WinClone. (Yes, this is not supported or developed any more.) Used the settings proposed by user "Toocool4"
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2570812?start=0&tstart=0
"Open Winclone go into Preferences from top to bottom:
Uncheck Check for new version at startup
Check Remove pagefile.sys from source partition prior to imaging to save space
When cloning NTFS partitions:
Choose Use “special” compressed image format that is not mountable, but is smaller and restores faster.
Everything after this is unchecked as I do not use Vista, XP etc "
Probably other settings might work as well.​
3. Put in the Mac Install DVD, shut down the computer.
4. Remove the original hard disk and put in the new one.
5. Boot from the Mac Install DVD (hold "C" during startup).
6. The new hard disk has to be formatted to a single HFS+ partition with disk utility. Don't use any other tool for this task. Take care to check "Using GUID Partition" under options button for an Intel-based Mac.
7. Install the Mac part from the external USB hard disk ("Restore from Time Machine").
8. Now reboot the computer from the hard disk. The Mac part should look identical to the installation you saved to Time Machine. Quite standard so far.
9. Run Boot Camp Assistant. I reserved a 100MB partition for Windows. (Probably Boot Camp writes the correct data for its boot options at this point).
10. When asked start the installation from the Windows 7 Install DVD. You get an error message because Boot Camp formatted the new partition to FAT32. The Windows Install DVD offers you to format the partition – which is fine since it will be reformatted to NTFS.
11. After that you can cancel the Windows installation in order to restore the Windows installation you have been saving with WinClone instead.
12. First re-boot with OS X. Then run WinClone and restore your old Windows installation.
13. Here comes a very tricky point (which cost me two days and nights to figure out):
Switch off the computer and disconnect the power cord for a minute or so. When I just restarted I ran into the "black screen, blinking cursor"-Problem. Couldn't boot into the restored Windows 7 installation on the hard disk, not even boot from the Windows Install DVD. Very weird, but finally found the power disconnect solution in this threads:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1424348?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/message/7188736?messageID=7188736#7188736?messageID=7188736
14. Now try to boot with holding down the options key ("Alt" on a PC keyboard). You should be able to boot either to OS X or Windows. At least that worked for me.

15. Optional: if you like some more partitions, "iPartition" can do so without deleting data. I partitioned it to exactly the same partition map I had on the legacy drive I wanted to clone. The order of partitions is reported to be critical. Bootcamp should be the 4th partition, the Mac Boot partition the first of course. I have to admit I restored the OS X and the bootcamp partitions a second time after adding 2 more partitions just out of unfounded fear … in order to hopefully put everything in the exact same place it used to be on the old drive. Probably not neccessary.


There is a more straight-forward alternative which is described in more detail here:

Clone a Hard Drive Using an Ubuntu Live CD - How-To Geek

1. Download an Ubuntu image, burn it to CD
2. Plug in your new (unformatted) drive into the computer (or connect it via an USB or Firewire adapter).
3. Boot from the Ubuntu CD
4. open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and enter in the following command:
sudo fdisk –l
5. Get a clear idea, what is the name of your original HD (e.g. /dev/sda) and what is the name of your new (unformatted) HD (e.g. /dev/sdb). Don't carry on, if you are in doubt …
6. If /dev/sda is your original HD and /dev/sdb is the new one, use the command dd to copy the original HD to the new HD:
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
"sudo" means running as an administrator, "dd" is the low-level disk copy command, "if" stands for input file, "/dev/sda" is the hard disk to copy from, "of" is the output file, "/dev/sdb" is the name of the hard disc to copy to. (could be "/dev/sdc", "/dev/sdd" … also – has to be checked with "fdisk")
7. Be patient. Since this copies everything – even the parts containing no data, it takes pretty long. Cloning a 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT on a 2011 MacPro took me 29 hours. And it could be even longer with other setups …!
"dd" won't give you any response until it is finished – leave it alone...

Unless your original HD is almost full, and if everything works fine, the first alternative is faster, since it only processes existing data, whereas the second alternative copies the entire disk no matter if there is data or not. Therefore "dd" method also contains the risk of completely deleting your original disk in case you mix up "if" and "of" or the names of your hard disks.

On the other hand, if you take care and triple-check your command-line inputs, the "dd" method is quite effortless and straight-forward.

This are the ways which worked for me. However, I'm not a specialist and cannot guarantee that this will work for other setups, nor can I comment on other setups. There was some try and error going on... Just wanted to share my experience (pulling the power plug solved a problem …!).

Cloning your hard drive before it breaks might be a clever idea anyway. And sorry for my poor English – just a kraut ;)
 
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And it has been updated to version 2.3.2 for Lion.
 
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Winclone Errors when creating image :(

Ok so I have used Winclone + Carbon Copy Cloner to create an image for iMacs in my lab just a few months ago. But for some reason when I try to use Winclone now, it errors every time when I try and create the bootcamp image. I tried removing and reinstalling Winclone and its add on install that it requires to run. But still no success. I also tried to run a Check Disk on the Windows side to see if that would fix the issue but still no success. I went to the developers site and found out that a newer v3 is out and they are now charging. I dont know if this newer version has anything to do with my current version giving me errors but I have run out of ideas of trying to get my previous version to work. Anyone know any other partition cloning programs that will work just like Winclone?
 
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Want a tip? Winclone does not work is easier to do a clean install of Windows.

Cloning in the Windows world is a different kettle of fish to using SuperDuper etc. You may like to have a look at Acronis True Image and Nortons Ghost. Both are commercial software.
 

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Want a tip? Winclone does not work is easier to do a clean install of Windows.

Cloning in the Windows world is a different kettle of fish to using SuperDuper etc. You may like to have a look at Acronis True Image and Nortons Ghost. Both are commercial software.

It's actually been updated and taken over by new developers. From all indications I've seen, it works brilliantly now that it's been updated.

Unfortunately, it's no longer free.
 

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