New SSD. Using Winclone for Bootcamp XP restore?

[lukester]

I am right now restoring my macbook HD using CCC and it seems to be going well.

My question is, I have XP my bootcamp partition backed up using Winclone and not sure what to do next?
Do I use Bootcamp utility to make the partition then restore info, or do I just make a Fat 32 partition and then restore to that?

I have been reading about many with problems?

 

[lukester]

have about 15 minutes to go on the Mac HD restore.
I am wondering if the bootcamp info will still work to be able to choose which OS to boot from when you use the ALT key to start up.
if not then I will have to go thru torture installing bootcamp and windows.

bummer

 

[lukester]

OH yeah,, having problems.
Talking to Winclone on why my restore does not work..
Oh by the way it was not meant to work with different type of HD like the SSD or on a different processor mac, etc. duh.

He says I need to make an Image of the bootcamp HD with winclone and place it somewhere then restore it using winclone

what a pain. I am not going to take my computer apart. I have a hd enclosure coming to copy the the original..
what a pain a and more pain.

However the SSD for the mac is screaming fast..

 

[MJL]

I am using Winclone with Windows 7 in a 2010 Mac mini server. Just back it up using Winclone.

To restore you can use bootcamp to blow away the old partition, then create a new partition (it will ask you for an install CD / ISO) and when it reboots to install Windows use the "alt" key to select booting from OS X again. Then run Winclone and when prompted by Winclone at the end of the restore (if your layout is not the same) replace the BCD file - Winclone will figure out the proper stuff to enable booting from the restored partition.

Just be aware that some later versions of Bootcamp drivers do not support XP. Perhaps some later hardware may have also XP support lacking, I do not know.

 

[lukester]

I am using Winclone with Windows 7 in a 2010 Mac mini server. Just back it up using Winclone.

To restore you can use bootcamp to blow away the old partition, then create a new partition (it will ask you for an install CD / ISO) and when it reboots to install Windows use the "alt" key to select booting from OS X again. Then run Winclone and when prompted by Winclone at the end of the restore (if your layout is not the same) replace the BCD file - Winclone will figure out the proper stuff to enable booting from the restored partition.

Just be aware that some later versions of Bootcamp drivers do not support XP. Perhaps some later hardware may have also XP support lacking, I do not know.

So you have done this and it works?
They want me to put the original hd back in, get into presys and remove the drivers. Make a image using WClone, put the new drive in, copy image with WClone . When it boots it looks for the drivers and installs them. I guess it works

 

[joec1101]

This can be a little tricky...

Winclone won't let you restore the image unless the new partition is formatted with the same format that the image was saved in; and the OSX Disk Utility doesn't support formatting NTFS.

So, what I did was create a partition from the Disk Utility, then, using Bootcamp Utility, started an installation from a Windows DVD and let it only go so far as to format the partition with NTFS. Then I stopped the Windows installation which basically left me with a blank NTFS formatted partition. Then I ran the Winclone app and was able to restore my Windows image to the new partition.

 

[MJL]

This can be a little tricky...

Winclone won't let you restore the image unless the new partition is formatted with the same format that the image was saved in; and the OSX Disk Utility doesn't support formatting NTFS.

So, what I did was create a partition from the Disk Utility, then, using Bootcamp Utility, started an installation from a Windows DVD and let it only go so far as to format the partition with NTFS. Then I stopped the Windows installation which basically left me with a blank NTFS formatted partition. Then I ran the Winclone app and was able to restore my Windows image to the new partition.

No, you only need to have the partition created by bootcamp and either same size or larger. Did this just today: used bootcamp to delete the partition (I had resized it smaller. Winclone restore complained it was too small)

I next used bootcamp to do another Win 7 install - it prompted me for the DVD and I inserted the Win8 DVD that I had (7 is off-site in storage). As soon as the machine rebooted (after doing its thingy: partitioning) I pressed Alt and booted in OSX and then used Winclone. I am working right this moment on the restored Win 7 bootcamp composing this reply.

 

[lukester]

Thanks for the replies.. I thought this was going to be easy. Just grab my XP disk and do a quick partition in bootcamp asst. etc. BUT I must have thrown out my Windows XP.. I think had placed the disk inside the folder of my Quickbooks 09 version so I wouldn't lose it.. But I am sure I through out Quickbooks since I have a new version.. DUHHHH

Should I get another XP which works perfect for me or get another Version of windows? I dont see how I can use newer version of windows to restore my XP. I never wanted to upgrade since I only use windows for a couple of programs that mac will not run.

Or should I go for Windows 7 since it seems to be fully tested now and will have support much longer than XP?

any thoughts?

 

[lukester]

Just decided to go to windows 7 and start from scratch. I needed a backup disk anyways and XP was not going to be supported much longer.

See if I have any nightmares.
I already have a bootcamp partition at about 51 gigs, so when I go into the bootcamp assist.. will I get the option to make that partition over again or should I delete it and start fresh?

 

[MJL]

It depends on your additional programs what space you need. I think 64 Gb is more than enough depending if it resides on SSD or HDD and if you have write intensive applications (I write 5 - 10 Gb / day, installation is less than 20 Gb but use 128 Gb SSD. Another machine uses only a 30 Gb SSD but writes only a few hundred Mb a day).

A few suggestions for windows 7 (excellent choice - I would not go back to XP because support runs out next year).

- use 64 bit (is able to use more than 3Gb of memory)
- turn off hibernation amd make sure the hidden hibernation file is not present
- if you have 4Gb or more memory: reduce pagefile to something like 256Mb
- reduce border width of the programs to 0
- get a utility called "TweakUAC" and set it to "silent", otherwise the security prompting will drive you nuts (you'll still get prompted every now and then but it is only a fraction of what happens otherwise)
- since you'll be backing up with something like Winclone: turn off in Windows 7 "system protection" which keeps a history of all program changes and eats up space like no tomorrow
- if you use command prompt for some maintenance you may need to use the command prompt "run as administrator" (right click)
- in control panel you may want to fiddle with power options
- get Microsoft's "Security Esssentials" (it replaces Windows Defender, it is better and has a very low overhead)

You'll enjoy it after a bit of a learning curve. Hope this helps.

PS if you access the internet a lot from Windows you may want to get "CCleaner" to tidy up the crap every now and then.

 

[rscheil]

It depends on your additional programs what space you need. I think 64 Gb is more than enough depending if it resides on SSD or HDD and if you have write intensive applications (I write 5 - 10 Gb / day, installation is less than 20 Gb but use 128 Gb SSD. Another machine uses only a 30 Gb SSD but writes only a few hundred Mb a day).

A few suggestions for windows 7 (excellent choice - I would not go back to XP because support runs out next year).

- use 64 bit (is able to use more than 3Gb of memory)
- turn off hibernation amd make sure the hidden hibernation file is not present
- if you have 4Gb or more memory: reduce pagefile to something like 256Mb
- reduce border width of the programs to 0
- get a utility called "TweakUAC" and set it to "silent", otherwise the security prompting will drive you nuts (you'll still get prompted every now and then but it is only a fraction of what happens otherwise)
- since you'll be backing up with something like Winclone: turn off in Windows 7 "system protection" which keeps a history of all program changes and eats up space like no tomorrow
- if you use command prompt for some maintenance you may need to use the command prompt "run as administrator" (right click)
- in control panel you may want to fiddle with power options
- get Microsoft's "Security Esssentials" (it replaces Windows Defender, it is better and has a very low overhead)

You'll enjoy it after a bit of a learning curve. Hope this helps.

PS if you access the internet a lot from Windows you may want to get "CCleaner" to tidy up the crap every now and then.

Excellent advice plus some great tips for performance-tuning Windows 7 on Boot Camp. Thank you MJL.

I would just add that the reason Sysprep is recommended when migrating Boot Camp between devices (HD->SSD on the same Mac or between two Macs) is that the old device drivers will likely cause problems on the new hardware. Sysprep removes the drivers (among other things) so that when booting into the new configuration, Windows will discover the attached hardware and attempt to use available drivers to facilitate a stable system, which then will allow you to install the Boot Camp drivers. This driver mismatch issue is also the case when migrating Windows between systems in the PC world. The Windows migration tool, although somewhat limited in the ability to migrate applications, is one alternative for migrating between PCs or Boot Camp Windows systems.

Regards,

Russell Scheil
Twocanoes Software, Inc.
http://twocanoes.com