Cloning a windows vista image to install on bootcamp

[harry454]

Hey guy's I was wondering if there is anyway to pretty much copy a Vista partition on a Thinkpad T500 (university Laptop) onto a bootcamp partition, I would need to clone it because my university doesn't give us install discs, they load the OS on the laptop's as a image with all the program specific software, this would help because then I can use my mac for both OSX and class work. Thank you!

 

[budfoot]

Hey guy's I was wondering if there is anyway to pretty much copy a Vista partition on a Thinkpad T500 (university Laptop) onto a bootcamp partition, I would need to clone it because my university doesn't give us install discs, they load the OS on the laptop's as a image with all the program specific software, this would help because then I can use my mac for both OSX and class work. Thank you!

Yup. Check out VMWare Converter...

 

[harry454]

Well thats kinda what I want to do but not exactly, see I want to take the vista image off of my Thinkpad, and then install it on a bootcamp parition, not virtual.

 

[likemyorbs]

Well thats kinda what I want to do but not exactly, see I want to take the vista image off of my Thinkpad, and then install it on a bootcamp parition, not virtual.

I get what you're saying, but don't dismiss a virtual machine right away. they work very well, and are much more convenient because you dont have to reboot. but you might want to upgrade to 4gb ram if you haven't already

 

[harry454]

Yes, I've used Vmware in teh past, just prefer the bootcamp style better, plus it would be better for in class as well. I don't know if anyone can find something out there that can do this.

 

[budfoot]

Yes, I've used Vmware in teh past, just prefer the bootcamp style better, plus it would be better for in class as well. I don't know if anyone can find something out there that can do this.

Hmmm, my bad... must have jumped the gun.

What if you clone the drive to a partition? I'm just wondering if drivers and sh is going to work out for you...

 

[harry454]

Drivers won't matter as I would uninstall the thinkpad ones and install the apple bootcamp ones.The only hard thing is cloning the parition on to the boot camp parition

 

[harry454]

Hmm, I'm going to see if this works, run norton ghost and create a backup image onto external HDD and then install vista on my bootcamp parition and then choose to restore the image from the HDD, maybe that might work.

 

[gr8tfly]

If you can get the Thinkpad's hard drive into an external enclosure, you might be able to use WinClone. It creates a bootable image file, which can then be restored into a new Boot Camp partition. My thought is it should see the Thinkpad's drive partition the same as another Boot Camp partition.

I've used WinClone quite a few times over the last couple month's to move and copy BootCamp partitions. They've all booted perfectly after.

The problem I can see is it being moved from one hardware configuration to another, but it should drop back to basic drivers and allow you to install the Apple Bootcamp drivers (off Leopard install disk).

 

[harry454]

Hmm I'll give that a shot seems like it may work! I could also technically uninstall the thinkpad drivers before I put it in external enclousre and then use winclone and reinstall the thinkpad drivers once back in thinkpad. Thank you I'll give it a shot.

 

[gr8tfly]

Hmm I'll give that a shot seems like it may work! I could also technically uninstall the thinkpad drivers before I put it in external enclousre and then use winclone and reinstall the thinkpad drivers once back in thinkpad. Thank you I'll give it a shot.

I think it's worth trying the clone as it sits, rather than messing with a known good install [on the ThinkPad]. Just my two cents worth...

 

[triceretops]

Did it work?

Hmm I'll give that a shot seems like it may work! I could also technically uninstall the thinkpad drivers before I put it in external enclousre and then use winclone and reinstall the thinkpad drivers once back in thinkpad. Thank you I'll give it a shot.

Just wanting to find out if you were successful in cloning the thinkpad to a bootcamp partition. I want to do the same thing with my Dell. I am just tired of the random hardware failures.

Apple Rules/Dell Drools