What is your impression on recent versions of Winclone?

Hello, I have been a Winclone user since it was a freeware. It used to be good but recently, I have problem in recovering the Windows partition. I asked support. They asked me to following procedure1. It failed. I asked again. They suggested procedure2. It failed. I reported back. They suggested procedure1 and repeats.... I don't find them useful despite they are charging us for the software. How is your recent experience with them?

 

Yes they are very quick in replying but suggesting the same two procedures that do not work over and over again is not very helpful. I was trying to restore an image from a rMBP 2014 to a MBP mid 2010 17". Both computers were running Windows 7. Note that I have no access to rMBP 2014 anymore and my MBP mid 2010 has been upgraded to El Capitan. Do you think that is the problem?

 

They did not mention SysPrep. Enclosed is part of a long discussion. Perhaps some of you could find a way to solve this.



--------- hajime
I have been trying to do it. I have a 1TB SSD on my Mac. About 600GB for Mac partition and a Winclone image of 52.71GB (I got the info by using Command+I). Strangely speaking, when I dragged the image to Winclone, Winclone states that it is 400GB! There is no way that I can change it to the correct size.

When I tried to restore a Winclone image to a Disk Image, I created a blank disk image of size slightly over 400GB to match the value stated by Winclone. After awhile I got an error saying that file system restore failed. Refer to system log. I tried twice already.

---------- support
Yes, what you describe is the expected behavior. When Winclone creates the image from the original Boot Camp partition, it includes the container size of the original partition, even if the space used is much less. This can be a problem if you need to restore an image to a smaller partition.

The solution is to shrink the file system, then create the image. The shrunk file system would be, in your example, about 52GB instead of 400GB. Since you cannot restore the image in order to shrink it, you will need to create a sparse image using Disk Utility, restore the image to the disk image, shrink the disk image and save a new Winclone image file.

Instructions for this process can be found here:
https://twocanoes.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202479423-Shrink-a-Winclone-Image
------------ hajime
I followed the steps in the link again. I got an error during "Restore the image using Winclone" before I have a chance to "Shrink the Sparse Disk Image".

Besides trying to restore an image saved on the desktop of a local drive, I also tried to do it by restoring it to an external 500GB drive. Again, I got the same error.

(I sent them the log file.)
------------- support
There appears to be a problem with the source location, disk1s2. I don't know if this is the 400GB Boot Camp disk image or the external 400GB Boot Camp drive. Whichever is disk1s2 appears to have corrupt data. Here are the log files from the most recent restore:

Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_attr_find_in_attribute_list(): Base inode 0x9 contains corrupt attribute list attribute. Unmount and run chkdsk.
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_inode_read(): Failed to lookup data attribute.
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_inode_read(): Failed (error 5) for inode 0x9. Run chkdsk.
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_inode_attach(): Failed to load inode 0x9.
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_secure_load(): Failed to load $Secure.
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_mount(): Failed to load system files (error 5).
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 4480): ntfs_mount(): Mount failed (error 5).
Feb 2 22:48:35 Macintosh-10 diskarbitrationd[73]: unable to mount /dev/disk1s2 (status code 0x00000047).

the "diskarbitrationd" refers to Time Machine. In System Preferences, make sure that Time Machine is turned off.

If you have a working Windows system, I recommend attaching the drive that is showing the above errors to the Windows system and run chkdsk on this disk's drive letter as it appears in Windows explorer. If the problem is not a failing drive, then it may be that running chkdsk a few times will fix these errors. Then try cloning/restoring again.
------------------- hajime
I checked TimeMachine. It is off.

Before I quit my previous job, I used Winclone to clone the Bootcamp partition. Then, I erased the disk and returned the computer to my workplace. Now, I am trying to restore some of the files I stored. I have been trying to restore the cloned image on the desktop of my MBP 2010 Mid with a new 1T SSD drive installed. No luck. I also tried to restore it to an external 500GB SSD drive. Also failed.
-------------------- support
Try saving to a disk image. This will serve two purposes, 1) it will verify if the image is good and not corrupt, reducing the variables related to restoring to a physical partition and 2) if you need access to files but do not need to boot from the system, restoring to a disk image will provide access to those files.

Restore an image to a disk image to verify:
https://twocanoes.zendesk.com/hc/en...inclone-Image-to-a-Disk-Image-to-Verify-Image
------------------ hajime
You suggested me to save to disk image before. As I reported to you few days ago, I have tried many times and no success. I have tried again and failed. Enclosed is the log file for your reference.
------------------ support
There is something wrong with the secondary disk with the NO NAME partition. During the restore process, the OS X kernel reports multiple NTFS errors like these:

Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_attr_find_in_attribute_list(): Base inode 0x9 contains corrupt attribute list attribute. Unmount and run chkdsk.
Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_inode_read(): Failed to lookup data attribute.
Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_inode_read(): Failed (error 5) for inode 0x9. Run chkdsk.
Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_inode_attach(): Failed to load inode 0x9.
Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_secure_load(): Failed to load $Secure.
Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_mount(): Failed to load system files (error 5).
Feb 6 11:14:33 Macintosh-10 kernel[0]: NTFS-fs error (device /dev/disk1s2, pid 3769): ntfs_mount(): Mount failed (error 5).

This could mean that the external drive is failing or has bad blocks or the connecting cable or controller is faulty. You may want to do a low-level format on the drive or use a disk checking utility. Or if you have another external drive you can test with, that would help rule out external drive problems.

 

I did not run CHKDSK in Windows before taking a Winclone image. As there was no error during the cloning process, I thought everything was fine and relied on that backup image. I cloned the partition, deleted it, reformatted the drive and returned the computer to previous workplace.

I tried CHKDSK several times on the MBP 2010 where I intended to restore the partition. No improvement of the situation. As far as I understood, support mentioned doing CHKDSK of the source rMBP 2014 before the cloning rather than doing CHKDSK of the target MBP 2010.