How can I clone a windows hdd onto my MacBook’s ssd/boot camp?

[rmfcb]

I have a mid 2015 MacBook Pro with a boot camp partition already on it, and a windows hdd in a laptop that I need to clone and make it bootable on the mbp.

I’ve never cloned anything before, but it seems pretty straightforward with lots of tutorials. However, I can’t find anything for cloning TO boot camp, only FROM bootcamp. I just want to see what my best option is, or if it’s even possible to do this. I cannot lose anything from the MacOS side of the MacBook, but I don’t care about what’s on the bootcamp partition if that matters.

As a 2nd option, I also have a second ssd out of a mid 2013 MacBook Air. If necessary, I could clone over that entire drive and just use it externally, but having an external ssd is another whole task.

Any advice? Thanks

 

[barbu]

Not what you’re looking for, but you can convert a live windows disk into a file that can be used by VMWare, I’ve done this in the past successfully.
Another hitch is that windows will likely deactivate itself since it detects the hardware change.

 

[rmfcb]

Not what you’re looking for, but you can convert a live windows disk into a file that can be used by VMWare, I’ve done this in the past successfully.
Another hitch is that windows will likely deactivate itself since it detects the hardware change.

Would vmware allow network and usb connection and such? I’ve used virtual machines before but never for a program like this. Also this hdd has already been cloned several times just never to a Mac, does the hardware change only occur with macs? It’s been cloned to different windows computers and two ssds and never deactivated

 

[barbu]

Yes VMWare offers a virtual network switch that you connect to a real adapter or share with the mac’s wifi etc. USB devices can pass through yes. VMWare Player and Converter are free and should do what you need. No need to reboot into boot camp!

 

[rmfcb]

Yes VMWare offers a virtual network switch that you connect to a real adapter or share with the mac’s wifi etc. USB devices can pass through yes. VMWare Player and Converter are free and should do what you need. No need to reboot into boot camp!

Awesome thank you I’ll look into that

 

[rmfcb]

Yes VMWare offers a virtual network switch that you connect to a real adapter or share with the mac’s wifi etc. USB devices can pass through yes. VMWare Player and Converter are free and should do what you need. No need to reboot into boot camp!

Hey I was wondering if you could give me any more info, I’ve been searching for a while now and can’t figure out how to turn the external hdd into an iso file for use with VMware. Or did you do it another way?

 

[barbu]

You won’t get an iso, you’ll get a vmx/vmdk file instead.

The process seems to be documented here:

Converting a physical machine for Fusion, Workstation, or Player using Converter Standalone

kb.vmware.com

 

[071952]

When I had my mac mini's I used winclone - worked fine. Don't know what happened since then as I moved to windows laptops which suited me better.