Bootcamp restoration fails

Joined
Oct 30, 2013
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have a Mac mini with both SSD (256 GB) and HD (500GB). I want to clone the SSD to the HD as a fall back solution if OS X or Bootcamp crash. The cloning of OS X 10.8.5 has worked flawlessly several times using Carbon Copy Cloner.

But so far I did not manage to restore a single Windows 7 Pro Bootcamp partition to the Drives. I tried Winclone in the new version: It restored but gave my a partition error in the end and the partition was useless.

And then I tried Paragon. I have bought Hard Drive Manager 2012 Suite and have made several Rescue USB sticks and Windows PE Boot sticks and DVDs. But whereas they perfectly boot other Windows machines, they don't make it with the Mac. The Recovery Sticks hang in the first screen, neither Mouse nor Enter work. And the Boot DVD hangs after completing the progress bar "Windows is loading files".

What "worked" was Clonezilla: I made a Live Linux USB stick and simply mirrored the whole SSD to the internal HD. The HD-side works now, both OS boot, OS X as well as Windows 7. But I lost Windows 7 Botcamp on my SSD. Only the Mac partion still boots into OS X.

Now even a genuin Windows 7 boot-DVD hangs with wich I wanted to fix posible bootloader errors. It too freezes with "Windows is loading files".

What went wrong? What can I do?
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Only thing I know of that works pretty good is WinClone.
 
OP
M
Joined
Oct 30, 2013
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Yes, I know Winclone too. In my starting post I already described the problems that I had several times with this programm: The backup works (sometimes not in the first place but finally it gives a file of probable file size). But the restore does *not* work properly: It restores endlessly (I hate programms that do not show a progress bar) but it ends with a fatal error, that partition sizes somehow mismatch (I have not written down the exact wording). And I use the current version 4 of Winclone from twocanoes software
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
Sorry, missed that.

Can't really assist much as I have never personally attempted a backup/restore of a Windows partition on my Macs. I don't keep any data in either a Windows VM or partition on a Mac that I care about. Anything created gets immediately transferred to OS X or to my primary Windows machine.
 
OP
M
Joined
Oct 30, 2013
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Os X or Windows or both?

For me it is the other way round. I bought the Mac mini mainly for its hardware: small, relative silent, good build quality. And above else Windows compatibility. I have worked with Windows since MS-DOS times so to say. And even after a relative easy plunge into the OS X world I decided to go back where my roots are: Windows. I work with MS Office, OCR Software and some other stuff, where there is no real equivalent under OS X.
I tried to run it both ways with Parallels 8 and VMware Fusion 6 even Virtualbox as I have virtual machines in this format from Windows PCs.

I even contemplated to get rid of thew Mac partition and run Windows only. But for redundancy and as a fall back I will keep the OS X boot partitions and even will update to Mavericks even if this means the end for my Parallels-Windows (I hate their policy of basically selling a subscription programme with their frequent and expensive updates.)
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top