New Mac Pro and bootcamp SSD backup solution

[Avenger]

I own a New Mac Pro with a 512GB SSD. I divided it in half and have OSX on one partition and Windows 8.1 on the other. I have 2 external USB 3.0 hard drives(not ssd), one for Mac and one for Windows. My question is about backing up the SSD. I am planning on using Carbon Copy Cloner for the Mac partition and Macrium Reflect for the Windows partition. If calamity happens, I am assuming that I restore the Mac partition, making sure of the partition size and then restore the Windows partition. Is this a proper way of proceeding?

 

[yjchua95]

I own a New Mac Pro with a 512GB SSD. I divided it in half and have OSX on one partition and Windows 8.1 on the other. I have 2 external USB 3.0 hard drives(not ssd), one for Mac and one for Windows. My question is about backing up the SSD. I am planning on using Carbon Copy Cloner for the Mac partition and Macrium Reflect for the Windows partition. If calamity happens, I am assuming that I restore the Mac partition, making sure of the partition size and then restore the Windows partition. Is this a proper way of proceeding?

CCC doesn't backup the Boot Camp partition IIRC.

Use something like WinClone (paid) or Paragon Boot Camp Backup (works almost as well and free) to backup the BC partition.

 

[doynton]

I use CCC for mac and just make standard Windows system images for bootcamp.

I tried Paragon bootcamp backup but it didn't work for me on 10.10.3 (it didn't even make a backup) and Paragon didn't respond to my tickets.

For macrium (or any other windows based restore) you need to think how you would boot. I use rEFInd so I can boot from a windows PE image (which is what macrium uses). I don't know if a standard bootcamp would let you - it might not think it was bootable.

If you create a standard windows image (which you make by clicking on the button in the bottom left of the file history screen in Windows 8.x) you can restore this using your original bootcamp USB key.

Honestly - you should test it. What is important (for restoring windows) is what your Mac will boot. If it will not boot your Macrium PE USB then you are not completely out of luck but it will be a hassle to get it back.

 

[Avenger]

I use CCC for mac and just make standard Windows system images for bootcamp.

I tried Paragon bootcamp backup but it didn't work for me on 10.10.3 (it didn't even make a backup) and Paragon didn't respond to my tickets.

For macrium (or any other windows based restore) you need to think how you would boot. I use rEFInd so I can boot from a windows PE image (which is what macrium uses). I don't know if a standard bootcamp would let you - it might not think it was bootable.

If you create a standard windows image (which you make by clicking on the button in the bottom left of the file history screen in Windows 8.x) you can restore this using your original bootcamp USB key.

Honestly - you should test it. What is important (for restoring windows) is what your Mac will boot. If it will not boot your Macrium PE USB then you are not completely out of luck but it will be a hassle to get it back.

The macrium USB key booted on the Mac Pro. It complained about a network device driver but I don't think I need it to restore a backup. I also made an image backup via Windows like you stated. By default, Windows selected the EFI partition (the 200MB partition) as well as the Bootcamp partition to backup, Is this necessary or should I just exclude it and just backup the Bootcamp partition?

 

[doynton]

As far as I know the EFI partition only changes if you install another OS so you don't have to back it up more than once. It is however very small.