How do I back up my Boot Camp partition to external firewire drive?

I have a 15 GB Windows XP Boot Camp partition (FAT32). I want to back it up to a 120 GB external Firewire drive. (I know the backup won't be bootable). In OX X Disk Utility, I formatted the external drive as MS-DOS (FAT). I planned to do the backup using the Windows Backup utility.
However, when booted into WinXP, Windows will not recognize the external hard drive. I thought I might need to create a FAT32 partion of 32 GB or less on the external drive, but I apparently can't do this in OS X or Windows (since Windows doesn't recognize the drive).
Any suggestions on how to backup the Boot Camp partition will be appreciated. I'm mainly interested in preserving all programs and data. Ideally, a clone could be created that could be restored back to the original partition in bootable form, but from studying this and other forums, it dosn't seem to be easy to do this for a FAT32-formatted volume.

My goal was to create a bootable clone of my FAT32 Boot Camp partition, while at the same time increasing the size of the partition from 15 GB to 32 GB if possible. This is what I did:
1. As suggested in this thread, I used Disk Utility to create a disk image. I formatted it as MS-DOS (FAT), and made it 32 GB in size.
2. Used the Finder to copy all files from my 15 GB Windows XP partition to the new disk image.
The following steps were only to determine if the disk image is a viable backup:
3. Removed the internal hard drive with my original Win XP partition, and installed a new internal hard drive.
4. Used Boot Camp Assistant to create a 32 GB Boot Camp partition on the new internal drive.
5. Inserted my Win XP installation disk and started the Windows installation. Formatted the new partition as FAT32. (I used the long rather than the quick format method--not sure if this was necessary.)
6. Continued the Windows installation to the point of restarting the computer, at which time I used the Option key to boot back into OS X.
7. Used the Finder to copy all the files from the 32 GB disk image to the new Boot Camp partition. (This overwrote a few Windows files installed by the aborted Win XP installation.)
8. Restarted and used the Option key to select the new 32 GB Boot Camp Partition. Windows booted as usual with all files, programs, etc. from the original 15 GB partition. Windows did complain about "new hardware" and required a restart, but all appears normal.
This indicates that the disk image containing all the files from my original Boot Camp partition is a viable backup, and can be used to restore the partition if necessary. I'm not sure if formatting the disk image as MS-DOS (rather than Mac OS extended) was necessary, or not.

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I have a couple USB enclosures with external AC power that I keep around in case I run into drives like this. Failing that, I also have a couple of USB cables which use 2 ports to provide additional current. Also the cable length, and gauge makes a difference.

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schmunzelmonster, greetings; Your suggestion is a good one. CCC does create a boot drive which as you point out can be most useful at times. Time Machine does not have that capability but it retains a history of activities and transactions that CCC does not. CCC only retains information as of the last update.
Neither individually is the 'perfect' backup solution individually, but if both are utilized it becomes that. There is no harm in backup redundancy.
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Interesting. Comes with? you didn't have either before? Paragon is commercial and is now v. 10.0, they were the only one keeping updated and was supporting 10.7.4. I would not enable more than one.
For writing to HFS Paragon has theirs but probably give the nod to MacDrive there.
I never do an upgrade to a new OS over the old system, I backup (clone) and format the drive with the new OS and do the install so whatever is there I know is clean and also to keep from carrying around leftovers from years and systems past.
I would assme Paragon is limited. Try their site and knowledge base?
MacDrive
http://www.mediafour.com/updates/macdrive
Paragon HFS
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/
Paragon NTFS
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac-os-x
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Boot camp without deleting external hard drive

Hi,
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thanks

Loner T wrote:
Windows on an external drive is officially supported, but you can use this How to run Boot Camp on External Hard Drive? A TM drive is onto typically used for non-TM purposes either, so please be…
Auto-correct. .
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I Have a imac early 2008 and i partitioned part of my internal Hard drive as a partition for time machine. but now i can not get rid of that time machine partition. I have already erased the partition but it will not let me delete the boot camp partition. even after reformating the hard drive. i can eject it but every time i restart it shows back up under my HD icon.
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P.S. Welcome to Discussions!
Message was edited by: joshz

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Frank,
You might want to check the Boot Camp discussions:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165
In case no one in this part of the board knows.

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How do I back up my Boot Camp partition to external firewire drive?

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