How to Re-Image a Bootcamped MBP?

[teejusb]

I am trying to Re-image my entire Macbook Pro and I wanted to make sure that I was doing this right. I have a 750 Gb MBP with 2 Partitions: Macintosh HD (With Lion; HFS+) and a Bootcamp partition (with Windows 7;NTFS).

I also have WD external HDD with two Partitions (also HFS+ and NTFS; basically completely blank so if needed to format this drive I can). Additionally, I do have more external HDs lying around if we need to use them.

I have Carbon Copy Cloner as well as WinClone.

A few questions about the process: After making images/backups of both OSes, I want to completely format my drive (No OSes) and then reinstall the Mac Image and I should be able to boot into it. I have a late 2011 MBP so I have a recovery partition, which I can boot into to access Disk Utility.

Currently I have made a "New Disk Image" with CCC which is now on the external Hard Drive in the HFS+ partition. This guide here http://www.smith.edu/tara/macintosh/carboncopycloner.html says to just choose a source and destination (not an image). Which one should I do to make sure I can boot into the Mac OS with all my data intact?

I am also using WinClone to make an image of my bootcamp partition (which is also on the external HFS+ partition).

After I manage to get a bootable version of Lion, I will just create another partition using Disk Utility for Bootcamp and use WinClone to Re-Image the partition.

Does this procedure sound correct? The main thing I'm worried about is not being able to boot into Lion after I completely format my drive in my MBP.

 

[hfg]

Well ... that sounds like what I am about to try as well. I have a 256GB SSD with 2 partitions for OS X and Windows7, and I want to replace it with a 500GB SSD also dual boot.

I have done the OS X clone many times both with CCC and Time Machine without any problems. The Windows partition is my problem since I really don't want to sit through a full re-install again. I just purchased WinClone for this purpose.

Since it seems that the BootCamp Assistant no longer has the option to just create the BootCamp partition without also starting a Windows install from a DVD, I assume I will have to partition and format the drive with Disk Utility, then clone-recover each OS separately. I am unsure if the BootCamp Assistant adds something to the boot sectors to permit easily switching between the operating systems as would normally be the case.

Please post your progress ... so I don't make the same mistakes!


-howard

 

[teejusb]

I just went ahead with what I thought would work and so far so good:

I first made a CCC copy of my Macintosh HD and saved it to my External Hard Drive (Which I completely reformatted to HFS+)

I then used WinClone to image my Bootcamp Partition, and saved it within the CCC copy (under Users/*MY ACCOUNT NAME*/Desktop/). That way when I would first copy the Mac OS I would have the WinClone image already on the desktop .

So then what I did was, with the external drive plugged in, was I selected the external as the startup drive (Under System Preferences -> Startup Disk) and hit restart and restarted off of my external drive. THIS WILL NORMALLY BE SLOWER but it should work. Basically I had a bootable COPY of my Mac OS.

Then what I did was I wiped my internal drive clean by erasing everything and reformatting to HFS+. Then I opened CCC off the external drive and basically made another copy. This time from the external to the internal. And once that was done, I went back to System Preferences -> Startup Disk and chose the internal as the startup disk.

EDIT: I guess the WinClone copy on the desktop didn't really work? It might've, try double clicking on the copy, select a drive, and see if it starts restoring. Mine didn't for me because I didn't double click on the file (which I probably should've). Anyways, I am currently restoring off the external drive, and so far no problems.
So far so good. I have the WinClone copy of my bootcamp partition on my desktop (as expected). Now I plan to reinstall windows using http://twocanoes.com/support/winclone/migrating-a-bootcamp-partition-with-winclone/ starting from step 12. I expect this to work and will report back with my results.

I should also mention, that I will be creating two more partitions in addition to my Bootcamp partition because I plan on triple booting with Linux (Lets see how that goes )

 

[hfg]

Well ... I just completed the dual boot re-image and it appears to be 100% successful.

I removed the old SSD from the MBPro and put it on a Seagate Go-Flex Thunderbolt adapter. Then installed the new SSD in the MBPro and booted from the external Thunderbolt SSD (original), partitioned the new SSD into 2 partitions, formatted the one for OS X, and the other for Fat32 (per WinClone instructions).

I then rebooted to the freshly installed internal SSD and ran WinClone to restore my Windows7 backup to the Windows partition on the SSD. That worked perfectly as well. It boots back and forth between operating systems as expected (and hoped for), and everything seems to be working fine.

Hope your transition was equally successful...



-howard