how to clone a PC as a bootcamp partition

Discussion in 'Windows, Linux & Others on the Mac' started by juan9999, May 25, 2011.

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  1. juan9999, May 25, 2011

    juan9999 macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2007
    #1
    I have a windoze XP work laptop which weighs a ton that I'd like to clone onto a macbook air. It currently also runs pointsec HD encryption. It is on a 120GB hard drive although 80% of that is empty.

    Does anyone have any tips on how to clone this and restore it onto a smaller bootcamp partition?
     
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  2. Quad5Ny, May 25, 2011
    Last edited: May 25, 2011

    Quad5Ny macrumors 6502a

    Quad5Ny

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2009
    Location:
    New York, USA
    #2
    There's a good chance your going to run into encryption, licensing, driver and space issues if you were to just copy the WinXP install over.

    Is this a company issued laptop? If so you better check their policy's before trying anything.


    What you would need to do is:
    • Decrypt
    • Install/Enable Intel AHCI drivers
    • Clean (out temporary files/system restore points)
    • Defragment
    • Shrink the partition (I doubt you have enough space on your Air's HD for a 120GB Windows partition)
    • Clone the partition onto a spare USB drive using some kind of backup software
    • Use the Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows Partition
    • Restore your backup onto the Boot Camp Partition
    • Pray you don't run into any Driver/HAL/Boot issues
    • Re-activate Windows
    • Remove unnecessary drivers/software (trackpad/video/network/power saving software/ect.)
    • Install the Boot Camp Drivers
    • Re-encrypt both laptops (Air and original laptop) if your company requires that
    • Wipe the USB drive you used (Your company might require this if they were using encryption)

    Seriously though, you are much better off doing a fresh Windows XP install in Boot Camp or even downloading VMware Fusion/Parallels Desktop/Oracle VirtualBox and installing a fresh copy there.
     
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  3. maflynn, May 26, 2011

    maflynn Moderator

    maflynn

    Staff Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2009
    Location:
    Boston
    #3
    Your best and safest bet is to install XP fresh as opposed to cloning it onto your old laptop onto a MBA.
     
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  4. juan9999, May 28, 2011

    juan9999 thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2007
    #4
    Thanks for the suggestions- it may be easier to copy the firm applications to a new install of xp. The only challenge is that for a lot of them (custom versions of Ipass, VPN software, Notes, ..., I don't have the install disks for)... hum dillema!

    Do any of the virtual PC machines create a virtual machine out of a real install?
     
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