Create an image of a Bootcamp partition

I just purchases an iMac, and I have installed Windows 7 as a Bootcamp partition on it. In addition, I have installed a bunch of Windows software that I want on it. What I'd like to do now is create an "image" of this BootCamp partition that I could use, should I need to, in the future to restore from.
Can this be done? If so, how?
NOTE: In the PC world, I used Acronis to create images of my laptop.

Sasha,
Was WINCLONE able to image the entire HDD - including OSX and bootcamp? Or is it just used to copy the Bootcamp partition and you are expected to recreate/reinstall OSX on the new HDD?
I'd like to swap in an SSD and put everything back as it was (OSX + Windows 7 via Bootcamp.)
Edit
It looks like this blog post may have answered my question:
http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/12/how-to-image-os-x-and-boot-camp-to-a-new-mac/

Similar Messages

Has anyone made a successful image of their Bootcamp partition with Lion?

An earlier thread has discussed making a Bootcamp partition image but it appears that no one has actually done it with Win 7 and Lion. https://discussions.apple.com/message/16064648#16064648 This thread mentions the use of Clonezilla and Paragon software as possibilities but has anyone done it? I know my Paragon "Rescue Disk" software no longer works with Lion and Bootcamp (free and has been in beta for years). Winclone is an "end of life" software option but will it work? Maybe this thread (if it become one) might help create a list of workable options. My experience shows Paragon's "Rescue Disk" is not working and Clonezilla needs a working example and a "how to".

Hi GeekBoy.from.Illinois,
I'm trying to use create a clonezilla usb key to use with my new MB Pro + Lion 10.7.2...
I have another key that I use for cloning the disk of my mac mini, but it doesn't work.
I tried creating a new key, but it doesn't show up as an option when I reboot and keep the alt/option
key pressed...
I've used the following steps and two or three different iso images from Clonezilla and nothing seems to work.
I did notice on diskutil that after formating the USB key with one HFS+ partition (a GPT version table)
and then do the dd command to copy over the .dmg/.iso image of the clonezilla cd
I get some weird "unformatted" partition table format at the bottom of the disk utility window...
but this is also reported as unrecognized/"unformatted" for the working USB (the one that works
fine with mac-mini)...
Here are the steps I followed.
http://superuser.com/questions/63654/how-do-i-burn-an-iso-on-a-usb-drive-on-mac- os-x/226148#226148
any ideas about what procedure to follow to create a working USB key for my new MB Pro?
Thanks very much,
A.

Is it possible to restore a norton ghost Windows7 image to a bootcamp partition ?

Trying to setup a dual boot environment on a new Mac Air with MacOS and Windows7 using Bootcamp. Rather than the normal way of installing Win7 from the vanilla install media, is it possible to restore a Norton Ghost image of a different (PC) laptop to the new Win7 partition?

Two "no" on this.
Activation needs to be retail OS. That okay?
Moving Windows to another motherboard almost never works and is buggy and unstable. Been there tried that.
Ghost does not support Boot Camp and the UEFI/GPT scheme used. Nor does Acronis. Paragon Software has come along with Boot Camp support.

I/O Error while trying to make an image of the bootcamp partition

Hei all.
I want to backup my Win-partition on my MBP.
But every time I try to make an image of that via Disk Utility, it gives me an i/o-error. I tried to do it logged in, while booted via the restore DVD, in Firewire-Target-Disk mode, on the internal HD and an external one, repaired the Volume, I can't think of anything else and don't know what I do wrong - the must be a way, doesn't it?
I'd be happy if anyone could help me, hope I've posted in the correct subforum,
greets,
Jojo

Well ok, think i don't need it anymore. thx anyways...

How to install my company's image of Windows 7 onto a Bootcamp partition?

My company uses a reimaging DVD to install Windows 7, MS Office, and all other propietary company software and settings. On a PC, you boot to the disk, it asks is you want to erase the entire and reimage the entire disk. It does not recongize partitions to allow you to choose which disk is erased and reimaged. I assume it would reformat the entire HD, removing partitions, and reimage the whole thing with WIndows 7 erasing the Mac OS.
The disk is made up of a boot folder with a etfsboot.com file. I'm assuming that this is where the process starts. It looks like they may have used imagex to create the image. There is a WIM file along with 4 SWM files which I'm assuming contain the image rebuild. There are several other support files but none of significant size.
I've read a ton of different blogs and forems, but I can't find anything that addresses my situation. Bootcamp doesn't recongnize the disk or the boot file as a Windows 7 install disk (I didn't think it would, but it was worth a shot).
How do I get this image onto a bootcamp partition?

You need a full retail version of Windows in order to install Windows on a Boot Camp partition. Ask your IT Admin or whoever created the image why it does not install on an Apple computer. We have no idea what they put on the disk with respect to software, security, etc.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634

Lion clean install broke existing windows xp bootcamp partition

Hi all,
I have been trawling to get educated on this but haven't found an answer yet (except purchasing windows 7-not interested, but thanks in advance for telling me that I should abandon XP because it's over 10 years old). And also dont tell me to just virtualise, i will, but i also want to use bootcamp for better performance. Lots of people theorizing what might work, but here's your chance to see what's not working in reality (and help get it to work please!).
I had snow leopard with a working bootcamp partition running xp (also using parallels), on a late 2006 Mac book pro. Things were getting very slow so I really wanted a clean install of lion (and it has made a world of difference!)
I didn't want to lose my xp partition so here's what I did:
1-used disk utility to create disk images to backup both partitions to an external drive (using spare space on my time machine drive)
2-used my lion USB stick to perform a clean install of lion on another external drive
3-erase and restore new lion installation to my internal Mac partition (previously snow leopard)
4-use migration assistant to bring back my data and settings (not applications-doing that manually)
5-download & install relevant software updates
(note that the bootcamp partition is untouched in all of this)
I noted that at first there was no lion recovery partition on my internal drive, but it has since appeared (presumably when I used software update to install an update to lion).
I didn't test the boot camp immediately but when I try to load it now the partition shows up and I can select it but windows presents me with the boot options screen (safe mode etc). It fails under all options (starts to load then flicks a blue screen before rebooting). From the safe mode log screen it appears to me that the issue could be the partition numbering (the new lion recovery partition has changed the partition number for the windows partition and it's freaked windows out).
Question is, what's the best way to fix it? I'm reluctant to try bootcamp assistant 4.0 because I know it doesn't support xp.
In hindsight maybe I should have done a clean install of snow leopard onto the external drive, erased and restored to the internal, updated snow leopard to 10.6.8 (or whatever was necessary for lion install), checked that the boot camp partition still worked (if not fix it with boot camp assistant), then upgraded to lion (seeing as upgrading to lion when there's a working xp partition on bootcamp is supposed to work).
I could still do all that but I wonder if there is a better / cleaner / easier solution.
Thanks in advance (& sorry for the long description!)

For future reference cloning can be the easy answer to preserving a BootCamp partition. I used the following procedure to upgrade 2 MBPs to Lion from SL.
Use Yasu and Diskwarrior to prepare existing Mac OSX 10.6.8 HDD.
Clone 10.6.8 Mac partition to an ext HDD with SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
Restart from the cloned ext HDD and select it as the startup volume via System Preferences / Startup Disk.
Install 10.7 Lion on the cloned ext HDD
Install Lion 10.7.2 update on the ext HDD
Restart the ext HDD now with OSX 10.7 and test and adjust the preferences if needed.
When satisfied, clone the OSX 10.7 ext HDD back to the existing Mac HDD.
The Boot Camp partition will not be altered as to drive id which appeared to cause problems for a few people.
The recovery partition will be on the ext HDD and can be used for trouble shooting. A more convenient way to have the recovery/reinstallation environment is to have or create a Lion install USB thumb drive.

B-tree error, cannot mount Lion partition, but can mount bootcamp partition. Unable to reformat because it won't mount. How do I reformat?

Hi everyone:
So earlier today I was taking a screen shot with (command+shift+4) and right when I took it, the spinning wheelcame up on the screen. It was there for a long time, so I decided to turn off my macbook by holding down thepower button. When I turned it on, it stayed at the grey apple logo with the loading circle underneath.
I turned it off again, and this time I started it into the Recovery HD. I ran a disk verify and it said my disk was corrupt and needed to be repaired. I tried to repair it and it said it could not be repaired. Next, I tried to erase the hard drive and it still didn't work because it cannot mount the hard drive.
The thing that baffles me is that I have 2 partitions on my hard drive, one for mac, the other for windows bootcamp and the windows hard drive is able to be mounted. I tried to completely delete the entire hard drive, but it won't let me. What are the next steps I should take into solving this problem? Any/All help is appreciated. Thanks

Sounds like the drive may be faulty or have suffered a problem. Bummer mate, but it happens.
Disk Utility won't let you do a complete erase? Probably not what you want to do anyway as you'd lose your bootcamp partition.
I would recommend you replace the drive and re-install OS X. Once they get faulty like this you're into a greatly increased risk window. You'll need to have a bootable DVD / USB stick of Lion or a RecoveryHD USB created by the Lion Recovery Assistant.
If the MBP is under warranty or you have Applecare you could get the drive replaced under warranty.
To retrieve your files and Apps etc you can restore from a backup, or if you don't have one then you could get a sata enclosure for the old drive and attach it as an external drive then attempt to copy the content from it once you've re-installed. Time Machine backups will make this much easier for you though.
For bootcamp, you're going to need a 3rd party program such as Winclone (www.twocanoes.com) to allow you to take an image of the bootcamp partition and restore it to the new bootcamp partition on the new drive.
I can heartily recommend the Seagate Momentus XT 750GB hybrid drive (ST750LX003) if you're going for a replacement. You won't believe the difference in performance it provides.
Good luck!

"Resizeing" A Bootcamp partition

Hi - a pretty complex question
I know that you can't just resize a bootcamp partition, but I'm wondering if this proposed solution would work so that I could save myself some time:
-Make a disk image of the bootcamp partition and store it on the Macintosh HD using the Disk utility from the Snow Leopard installation disk.
-Get rid of the Bootcamp partition (which currently is a 32GB fat32 partition)
-Repair disk permissions (for good measure)
-Use the Bootcamp utility to create a larger (50GB Maybe) NTFS Partition.
-Use Disk utility from the snow leopard installation disk to dump the disk image of the old partition into the new partition.
Would that Work????
IF so, anything I should Know?
Thanks!

Sorry, I just remembered to post the follow up:
I successfully was able to use winclone (http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone) - Thank you very much "Sausage King of Chicago"
Their is one minor caveat. In order to successfully resize the partition, the windows drive MUST be formatted for NTFS (not fat32. Type:
"CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS"
in the windows Command prompt program. (of course, substitute your local disk's drive letter for "C" - mine was "F"
Command prompt will say that it can not reformat the drive, because it would have to dismount the local disk, so it will schedule a boot time re-format. Windows will have to restart twice (for me anyways) in order to reformat, so make sure you hold down option as the computer is restarting.
Once this is done, check to make sure that Windows XP is still working properly, then boot back into OSX.
Once in OSX, use winclone to Image your Bootcamp partition. Save it as a file to the desktop.
When done, remove your Bootcamp partition from the computer (making sure that the image file is still safe!!!) using Boot Camp Assistant.
Now repair your Macintosh HD using disk utility (repair disk). My disk needed so much repair that it told me to start up with my Leopard installer disk, and repair the disk from its disk utility.
Now you are ready to use Boot Camp Assistant to set up a new LARGER bootcamp partition. When you are done, don't go ahead and install windows, instead, dbl click on the image file you made, and when winclone opens, restore it into your new, bigger bootcamp partition. It should work.
Same Windows computer- much more free space!
Thanks for your advice

HT3777 Running Macbook Pro, Mac OS 10.6.8, Bootcamp 3.3, & W7 64 Home Premium. What do I use to backup my W7 Partition to create an image like Norton Ghost that I can use to restore partition.

Running Macbook Pro, Mac OS 10.6.8, Bootcamp 3.3, & W7 64 Home Premium. What do I use to backup my W7 Partition to create an image like Norton Ghost that I can use to restore windows partition.

Windows itself.
There really are "?" (Help} icons and the backup feature will even remind you to create a system restore image the first time.
(I still think a reference manual for $25 makes sense too, or at least learn to use Google.)
Was asked and answered - quite well - a couple times yesterday, that would avoid and save a lot of wear and tear.

Create an image of my current PC laptop and them use as Bootcamp image...

I currently have a Dell laptop that I've had for almost two years, running Win XP. I've installed tons of software over that time. I would love to be able to create an "image" of this laptop, and then use it as a Bootcamp partition. I can imagine that this is very difficult, due to the different hardware, if nothing else, if it's possible at all.
Is this possible? If so, how?

And not transferable unless you used retail copy.
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp

How can I create system image of Win-7 only on drive with Win-7 (NTFS) and Win-ME (FAT-32) system partitions

I am trying to create a Windows 7 Image Backup on my Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit PC.
I have two bootable partitions on my hard drive. One is NTFS and contains the Win-7 system files.
The other is FAT-32 and contains a Windows-ME system.
When it comes to selecting the drives (partitions) for backing up, both are marked as System, and both are selected. Both are also "greyed out) - I cannot uncheck them.
Furthermore, the Windows-7 imaging utility supplied with Windows-7 returns an error saying it cannot image the disk because it contains a partition that is not NTFS.
How can I select and image ONLY the NTFS partition that contains the Win-7 system? That is what I want to do.

Any of the products listed below will backup the contents (all partitions) of your disk drive. The only limitation is that you must install the backup software in Windows 7. You will perform a "Disk and Partition" backup by manually selecting
the disk and all partitions (NTFS / FAT32) and the Master boot Record (MBR) on the drive. The destination / where the Image Backup will be stored should be an external USB drive. With a "Disk and Partition" backup you can restore any partition
to your existing drive or the entire backup (to the same disk drive or a new drive).
EaseUS Todo Backup Home V7.5
http://www.todo-backup.com/home/home-backup.htm
Free version:
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm
Version comparison chart:
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/comparison.htm
Includes: Incremental backup, Disk/partition clone
User's Guide: http://www.todo-backup.com/download/docs/User_Guide.pdf
(Note: Install Todo and then create an "Emergency Disk" before you start creating your first image backup)
Version 7.0 supports XP, Vista, Windows 7, 8 and 8.1
Acronis True Image 2015:
Has a 30 day trial version available, trial Key sent to your Email Address.
Note: Cloning and drive initialization (creating a MBR) are not supported in the trial version.
For the trial version, recovery is available only when booting from an Acronis Bootable Media CD.
Install Acronis and then create a bootable Restore/Rescue Media CD before you start creating your first image backup
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/true-image-comparison/
30 day trial : http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/
True Image User Guides and documentation:
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/
2014 supports XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1
Paragon:
Free version: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/
User'sGuide:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html
Home Version $39.95: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/brh/
Support: http://www.paragon-software.com/support/
Macrium Reflect Free:
Free version: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
(no technical support available for the free version)
Macrum Reflect Standard ($49.99)
http://www.macrium.com/personal.aspx
Suport: http://www.macrium.com/ticket.aspx
Note: For users who have a Western Digital disk drive there is a free version of Acronis 2013:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
Release notes:
http://support.wdc.com/download/notes/ATI_WD_RN_5962.pdf
Users Guide for WD Version:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&type=userguide&wdc_lang=en
J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com
Never be afraid to ask. This forum has some of the best people in the world available to help.

How can I remove the BootCamp partition? as the size i created ws too small to install MS Office on 64Bit Windows 8.1 on MacBook Pro (Aug'13)

How can I remove the BootCamp partition drive for Windows 8.1, as the size which I created was too small for me to install Microsoft Office onto Windows 8.1 64-BIt. The machine which I have is the MacBook Pro 13' inch purchased in August 2013.

Either use Paragon's CampTuneX to resize it or use Boot Camp Assistant to remove the partition and restore the drive to one partition. Then create a new, larger Boot Camp partition. This will remove/delete/erase your Windows system.

Can I create a Bootcamp partition without installing Windows immediately?

I have a clone of my bootcamp that contains Windows 7, but can't restore to the Clone without a Bootcamp partition.
I am running Lion.
Is there anyway to create the bootcamp partition without the Windows Install Disk?...if so, I could just restore my Cloned Bootcamp onto the Bootcamp Parition.
Thank you,
AK

Wait...after I hit send, I realized you had cloned your boot camp parition with winclone. My bad...well, you can always try putting the cloned partition on the exFAT partition, if possible. I think what I had to do when I bought a new hard drive was to boot into the old had drive. I then attached the new drive with a handy universal drive kit (http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/U3NVSPATA/). I think I used iPartition to create an NTFS partition on my new drive. I then copied my cloned Windows partition onto the new drive.

After i had created new partition, bootcamp partition was disappear in the boot screen

    I was created a new partition for mac os x yosemite after that day I cant see bootcamp partition on boot screen (press alt while startup) but bootcamp partition can see in desktop and system preferences>startup disk. When I was startup windows from preferences>startup disk, I see this writing "no bootable device".
    So how can I fix my windows partition? Please help!!!
Christopher Murphy can you help me? You look like expert of this area.
Are these help for the solution?
Merts-MacBook-Pro-2:~ Mert$ sudo gpt -r -vv show disk0
Password:
gpt show: disk0: mediasize=1000204886016; sectorsize=512; blocks=1953525168
gpt show: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt show: disk0: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: disk0: Sec GPT at sector 1953525167
       start        size index contents
           0           1         MBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640 1243298208      2 GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1243707848     1269536      3 GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
1244977384     5422872
1250400256   703123456      4 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
1953523712        1423
1953525135          32         Sec GPT table
1953525167           1         Sec GPT header
Merts-MacBook-Pro-2:~ Mert$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
#: id cyl hd sec - cyl hd sec [     start -       size]
1: EE 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
2: AF 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [    409640 - 1243298208] HFS+
3: AB 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1243707848 -    1269536] Darwin Boot
4: 0C 1023 254 63 - 1023 254 63 [1250400256 - 703123456] Win95 FAT32L

You can not create another partition on a drive containing a Boot Camp partition. You now need to erase then format your drive. Reinstall OSX then reuse Boot Camp Assistant to create a new Boot Camp partition. Reinstall Windows. Ensure you copy off all your data before erasing and formatting the drive.

Replaced my iMac optical drive with ssd - now I can't create a bootcamp partition

I have a late 2009 imac 27". Recently my imac hard drive crashed so I used this opportunity to replace the broken hard drive and also replacethe iMac optical drive with a SSD drive. The idea was to use the ssd drive as my bootcamp partition and boost things up. WRONG IDEA!
I wasted already 5 hours trying to get bootcamp to install windows 7 onto the ssd using an external optical drive, a USB drive, an internal partition of my new hard drive. I used rEFIt to try and boot from these fine devices - nothing! Once the OS restarts to install Windows 7 it gets stuck either in blank screen or with a message that it requires a bootable device.
This is one of the most puzzling situation I've seen. Any help will be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Amir

This is the same problem people have with their MacBook Pro. Some people have had success using rEFIT, but many didn't. The only solution that I found was just installing my opitcal drive back in and installing windows on what ever hardrive you need. Then taking the optical drive back out. I know that sounds like a lot of work, but once your done you will be relieved.

Create an image of a Bootcamp partition

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