Moving my Bootcamp partition to my new SSD after I swapped the opti drive for an SSD?

[TijmenDal]

Hi peoples,

I got myself a new (to me) MBP not too long ago (13" i7 model from 2012, I think?). Now, in my old MBP (13" i5 from early 2011) I had swapped the optical drive for an SSD, which ****ing rocked, of course, but now I want to do the same with my new Macbook.
I have one question/concern though. In my old MBP, after I swapped the Opti drive for an SSD, I couldn't for the life of me get Windows installed for Bootcamp. I tried everything: thumb drive, ISO images, external readers, cracks, you name it. It didn't work.
Now on my new MBP I already have Windows installed through Bootcamp on my HDD. Of course I plan on migrating Mac OSX to the SSD, but I want to do the same thing for Windows. Can I just use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy on the new SSD? Would that work?
I really don't want to go through the trouble again (and not even succeeding) of trying to install Windows on the SSD when I don't have an optical drive in my MBP.

Also, last time I got a caddy from eBay, which was just fine. Now I'm thinking maybe I should get a caddy that also includes a case for my optidrive so whenever I need to read a disc I can. I did buy one of the opti drive caddy's from Amazon last time (I decided I wanted one anyway a while later) and that one didn't work and fried my opti drive... Would something like this work?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Mike Boreham]

CCC won't clone a Bootcamp partition.

Nearest equivalent is to make a Winclone image of the old one and restore it to the new.

You will probably get better/more answers in the Windows and Linux on Mac section of the forums.

MBPs which were originally supplied with internal superdrives will not boot Windows from an external USB optical, even the original superdrive, in a case. There are complex ways using rEFIt, not suitable for the layman (like me). This limitation affects installing Windows and updating firmware on the SSD in the main bay.

 

[TijmenDal]

CCC won't clone a Bootcamp partition.

Nearest equivalent is to make a Winclone image of the old one and restore it to the new.

You will probably get better/more answers in the Windows and Linux on Mac section of the forums.

MBPs which were originally supplied with internal superdrives will not boot Windows from an external USB optical, even the original superdrive, in a case. There are complex ways using rEFIt, not suitable for the layman (like me). This limitation affects installing Windows and updating firmware on the SSD in the main bay.

Thanks. In the past I've also tried using rEFIt, but without succes.

I'll go ask in the Win/Linux forums too!

 

[gr8tfly]

Use WinClone to make a bootable image backup. Then, use BootCamp Assistant to create a new Bootcamo partition on the new drive. Once you have the new partiton created, use WinClone to restore to the new partition [using the image you created in the first step].

I've used WinClone many times when migrating to a new internal drive with great success. It will even expand an NTFS partiton into a larger one on the new drive.

As for OS X, I just use Disk Utility's Restore. You would need to run it off your Recovery Partition, or OS X installed on an external drive (USB flash drive or HDD/SSD), as both source and destination partitions need to be un-mountable.

 

[TijmenDal]

Use WinClone to make a bootable image backup. Then, use BootCamp Assistant to create a new Bootcamo partition on the new drive. Once you have the new partiton created, use WinClone to restore to the new partition [using the image you created in the first step].

I've used WinClone many times when migrating to a new internal drive with great success. It will even expand an NTFS partiton into a larger one on the new drive.

As for OS X, I just use Disk Utility's Restore. You would need to run it off your Recovery Partition, or OS X installed on an external drive (USB flash drive or HDD/SSD), as both source and destination partitions need to be un-mountable.

Great. Thanks a lot!