Anyone used Norton ghost 12 to image boot camp partition ok?

[andyloc]

Ok I eventually got Win XP Home on my iMac, I now would like to image it after I downloaded all the updates and put my programs on etc.

I have read that Acronis true Image wont do it for some partition reason thing?

Does anyone know if Norton Ghost 12 will do it ok? I chatted with Norton Tech but they came back with the stock "we do not support Norton Ghost on non-PC environment!!, but it may work ok"

So here's what I want to do, if I decide to do a re-install of Windows (like I used to onmy PC every 6 months or so) I would do the normal Boot Camp assistant and install bre XP onto the same size partition.

Then load Ghost back on and reload my saved image that I took

has anyone tried this? or can it be done? or what other solutions is there please?

I have Leopard 10.5.1, 20" 2Ghz iMac, Win XP Home on

cheers

[tersono]

Haven't tried Ghost, but I'm dubious that it would work. However there's a freeware solution which DOES work..

Winclone

[andyloc]

Cool thnks for that, Im taking you've tried it?

Why are you dubious it will work is there a tech prob that stops it?

Is WinClone reliable?

cheers

[Neil321]

carbon copy cloner

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

[andyloc]

WinClone wont do FAt32 partitions for some strange reaon, and guess what thats what I have my partition set to!!

I want to access Win partitioon through Mac OS so have to have it as FAT32

I thought CCC was only to image Mac OS X and not windows? is this correct?

Anyone tried CCC for windows backup?

[JNB]

Originally Posted by andyloc

WinClone wont do FAt32 partitions for some strange reaon, and guess what thats what I have my partition set to!!

I want to access Win partitioon through Mac OS so have to have it as FAT32

I thought CCC was only to image Mac OS X and not windows? is this correct?

Anyone tried CCC for windows backup?

You are correct. Unless there's a mystery menu, I don't think it can.

[Neil321]

sorry but miss understood the post

[sushi]

There is a way to clone your Bootcamp partition that I know.

It takes a few steps, but requires no additional software other than your WinXP install disk.

Are you interested?

[timswim78]

Originally Posted by sushi

There is a way to clone your Bootcamp partition that I know.

It takes a few steps, but requires no additional software other than your WinXP install disk.

Are you interested?

Yes, please follow up!

[sushi]

Originally Posted by timswim78

Yes, please follow up!

Okay, here it is:

Bootcamp Backup and Restore instructions:

These steps below will backup your Windows XP partition, eliminate the partition, recreate the partition and restore Windows XP.

Assumptions:
1. Using Mac OS 4 (Tiger)
2. Using Windows XP
3. Windows partition is formatted as FAT and not NTFS.


Steps:

1. Back up the Boot Camp partition using Disk Utilities. Create an image of your Windows XP partition.

2. Delete the Windows XP partition using Bootcamp assistant.

3. Create the Windows XP partition using Bootcamp assistant.

4. Boot from the Windows XP SP2 CD.

5. Complete the installation up to the point where Windows restarts the first time. Format the partition as FAT32. Do a quick format to save time.

6. When the computer restarts, press the OPTION key, and then select to boot from your Mac partition.

7. Copy files from your backup (you will have to mount the image you created in step 1 above) to the Windows partition:

a. Copy ntldr
b. Copy NTDETECT.COM
c. Copy boot.ini
d. Copy PAGEFILE.SYS
e. Then copy the remaining files.

8. Delete any Desktop.ini file(s) that result in error notifications.

9. Restart Windows XP.

And viola, you are done!

Here are the two web sites that I used:

Site A

Site B

Note: I’ve done this numerous times using an iMac running Tiger and Windows XP. I have not tried it on a MB, MBP or Mac Pro, nor using Leopard or Vista. YMMV.

[sushi]

Originally Posted by sushi

Okay, here it is:
<big snip>

Please let me know if you use this solution and how it worked for you.

[andyloc]

thanks for the reply, seems a good resolution, But Im thinking of now changing the FAt32 partition to NTFS and using WinClone for ease of use.

It means I cant access FAT32 partition from Mac OS X but any files I will have to reboot and copy to a USB flash pen.

What other benefits are there about having a FAt32 and being able to access it from your Mac OS?

Just like to know before I convert, it taken me ages to configure Win XP as I want it, with the updates, settings, accounts,activation, isatllation of software etc so dont want to lose it all, and would rather have a nice image to return to, unless there is some extra benefits of FAT32 that Im missing

cheers

[andyloc]

Can anyone answr my questions above please? Particullary the one about other benifits of keeping the partitionin FAT32? is the only reason to copy files back and forward to Mac OS and Win XP?

cheers

[Neil321]

yep that's the only decent thing about FAT32 me i format my xp partition NTFS
and format externals hfs+ and use macdrive 7 in windows to read/write to it
FAT32 in my opinion is old and cruddy(but stable)plus your limited to 4gb file
transfers

[andyloc]

I see so FAT32 really is just to read files from MAc OS X, but there aresolutions for this!

cool, is there any free solutions?

Looks like I'll format to NTFS then and save a lot of hasle and then can save my boot camp partition using WinClone and have a decent backup

Is it ok for me to now do the convert comand line thing in windows to convert from FAT32 to NTFS? or will I have to go through the whole procedure again and chose NTFS this time when doing boot camp?

cheers

[Neil321]

yep you can do the convert command line thing or use something like partition magic or re-create the partition as NTFS.Try googling macfuse as a alternative to macdrive 7 see if that does what u want

[Guy Incognito]

Originally Posted by andyloc

Is it ok for me to now do the convert comand line thing in windows to convert from FAT32 to NTFS? or will I have to go through the whole procedure again and chose NTFS this time when doing boot camp?

You can convert to NTFS from FAT32 using the convert command without causing any problems.

I haven't used a Boot Camp partition in months since switching to VMWare Fusion, but WinClone worked well when I tried it.

[andyloc]

Originally Posted by Guy Incognito

You can convert to NTFS from FAT32 using the convert command without causing any problems.

I haven't used a Boot Camp partition in months since switching to VMWare Fusion, but WinClone worked well when I tried it.

Cool I know about the comand line convert thing thanks

Glad WinCLone worked-will try it.

What about other things that you could do in FAT32? or is the only benefit that you could read the partition and drag and drop files in Mac OS X? but I now know this can be done in software even when Boot camp is a NTFS partition, s I may as well convert - yes?

cheers

[andyloc]

well I converted the XP partition fine to NTFS, and guess what from Mac OS X I can still read the files off the partition!! although I cant right to them but thats ok, didnt know you could do this did anyone?

Haven tred WinCLone yet, will soon just getting partition to my liking

cheers

[Scoox]

Hi everyone, here is an idea of how I would restore an NTFS Windows XP image using Ghost on a Mac:

NOTE: Please read the whole procedure before you go ahead, especially the red text!

- You need to create THREE partitions on the system drive:
- Partition 1 (P1): Mac OS X (5 GB)
- Partition 2 (P2): Windows XP (Size = Total - (P1+P2)) formatted as NTFS
- Partition 3 (P3): Windows XP (Size = 3 GB) formatted as NTFS
- Install Win XP to P2, set it up, tweak it, install all your apps etc.
- Once you've got Win XP looking great, install Win XP to P3. This should be a bare-bones installation as the only use for it will be to run Norton Ghost, so basic functionality should suffice
- Now you have two installations of Win XP. Boot into Win XP of P3.
- Install Norton Ghost on P3.
- While you are running Windows XP from P3 you will be able to READ and WRITE to P2; Run Norton Ghost and create an image of P2.

IMPORTANT: Where are you going to save this image? The best place to save it is an external hard drive. If you don't have one, make P3 bigger so it can hold the image file.

Ok so now you have an image of P2 saved on your external drive. To restore the image of P2 to P2 all you need to do is

- Boot Win XP from P3
- Run Norton Ghost
- Restore image of P2 to P2 directly from the GUI, so no boot disc is required!

As you can see the OS X partition (P1) will be sitting there taking up space for nothing because you will never need to use it. P3 serves the purpose of a recovery partition which enables you to act upon the other partitions. This is the method I use for my other PCs. I haven't actually tried it on the Mac yet but I am going to today. I will report back if I have any joy.

One more thing, if you are familiar with TweakUI there is an option to hide drives under My Computer, so if the above procedure worked you could hide all the mac-related paritions to make your system look like a true PC.

[jerryrock]

WinClone worked for me, increasing my Vista64 NTSC partition from 32 to 66 gigs. No reinstalls or reactivation required.

[smyhre]

If you are still looking for a method to image XP onto the bootcamp partition try this. I did this on several machines and it worked perfectly. I used a Bart PE disk for this.


To make and blast an image of the Windows side of the mac:

Creating the image:
1. Create your perfect setup for the Windows side on the Mac including:
- Mac drivers by inserting the 10.5 (leopard) Install Disk and installing bootcamp.
- Installing any Boot camp updates for windows side, current version 2.1 (Leopard disk has version 2.0).
- Other updates, programs, etc.
2. Boot from a Bart PE by holding down the "c" key on restart, and open Ghost.
3. Make an image by choosing Partition/To Image. Make sure you choose the NTFS partition only. Save the image to a flash drive/harddrive. If needed sys prep the image before next steps.


Making the Windows Partition
4. Start up on the Mac OS side of the computer and open up Bootcamp Assistant. Fastest way to find it is hit "Command(Apple) Space" and then start typing the name. Otherwise go to Harddrive/Applications/Utilities/Bootcamp Assistant
5. Set up the size of partition you want for the widows side by using the slider between the Mac and Windows partitions and click partition.
6. After the partition is set up quit Bootcamp Assistant.


Blasting the image:
7. After the bootcamp partition is set up insert a windows install disk (must have SP2 on it) and boot up on it by pressing "C" key on startup.
8. Go through the steps in the begining and tell it to quick format the bootcamp partition as NTFS.
9. After the quick format is finished turn off the computer by holding the power button down.
10. Start up on Mac side, eject Windows Disk, insert Bart PE disk, and attatch the flash drive/harddrive that contains the Windows image.
11. Restart the machine once again holding down the "c" key to boot off of Bart PE.
12. Blast the image on to the windows side by choosing Partition/From Image. Find the image on the flash drive/harddrive and then make sure you image it to the NTFS partion on the correct drive otherwise you will erase the entire Mac side.
13. After the imaging is complete reboot holding down the Option key and choose the Windows side. If it boots you did it right, if not or the widows option doesn't show you did it wrong.



It seems like a long process but really it's much shorter then it could be.