KenV99
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Proper way to migrate to larger SSD with Win7 Bootcamp/Parallels

Hi,

I am planning to upgrade my internal SSD from a 128 GB to 500 GB Evo 850 in my 13 inch late 2012 MacBook Pro Retina running the latest OSX Yosemite 10.10.5.

I have read that since 10.10.4, the issues with kext signing have been resolved and that I should be able to enable TRIM via ForceTrim (Yay).

I currently have a 30GB Win7 partition for use both in Bootcamp and Parallels.

 

What is the proper/best way to do this migration?

 

My current plan is to

1) Do a TimeMachine backup of the OSX partition (just in case)

2) Use Macrium Reflect from within the windows partition to image that partition to an external drive (again, just in case).

4) Attach the new drive using a USB 3.0 to sata iii cable

5) Clone the OSX partition to the new drive as a single partition spanning the whole new drive using Disk Utility and CarbonCopyCloner.

6) Shrink the OSX partition and create a 120 Gb FAT partition using Disk Utility (Since this will be used with an image file system type doesn't matter?).

7) Start Parallels and use Macrium Reflect to clone the Windows 7 partition to the newly created partition.

8) Replace the old SSD with the new one.

9) Boot into OSX and test Parallels and boot into Windows via Bootcamp and test.

 

Will this work? Is there an advantage to using Winclone instead of Reflect? After creating the new partition, should I format it to NTFS on a windows machine before cloning the Bootcamp partition? Is there anything else I need to do to make all this work with Bootcamp and Parallels?

Thanks for your advice.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), Parallels, SSD, Migration

Posted on Sep 7, 2015 7:32 AM

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KenV99

Q: Proper way to migrate to larger SSD with Win7 Bootcamp/Parallels

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  • Helpful answers

  • by FatMac>MacPro,

    FatMac>MacPro FatMac>MacPro Sep 7, 2015 9:09 AM in response to KenV99
    Level 5 (4,805 points)
    Sep 7, 2015 9:09 AM in response to KenV99

    Unless there's some reason to maintain the Boot Camp version of Win 7, why not make things a lot easier and simply carry over just the Win 7 Virtual Machine. I use Fusion instead of Parallels but at least with Fusion, it's possible to dissociate the VM version of Win 7 from the Boot Camp version so that Boot Camp is no longer needed. Going that way means simply cloning your current Mac partition to the new SSD and getting all the advantages a VM offers.

     

    BTW, if you ever decide to use the Win 7 installation as the base for upgrading to Windows 10, going back and forth between Boot Camp and the VM will break the validation.

  • by KenV99,

    KenV99 KenV99 Sep 7, 2015 9:17 AM in response to FatMac>MacPro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 7, 2015 9:17 AM in response to FatMac>MacPro

    Can you boot directly into the VM? Performance-wise when I use some of my photography applications in windows (GBTimelapse), I find more consistent performance if I boot directly into Windows. This is a very time sensitive app, triggering a bulb camera release with ms resolution.

  • by FatMac>MacPro,

    FatMac>MacPro FatMac>MacPro Sep 7, 2015 9:26 AM in response to KenV99
    Level 5 (4,805 points)
    Sep 7, 2015 9:26 AM in response to KenV99

    KenV99 wrote:

     

    Can you boot directly into the VM? ...

    Again, while it's possible to boot into either, at least in Fusion once the VM is dissociated from the Boot Camp installation, it's just a regular VM. How fast the VM can run is often dependent how much you give it in both RAM and the number of CPU's. There's also the issue that Apple has dropped Win 7 support for some new Macs and with El Capitan approaching who knows what will happen to Win 7 support then. On the other hand, Windows 95 is still supported in Fusion.

  • by KenV99,

    KenV99 KenV99 Sep 8, 2015 4:15 AM in response to FatMac>MacPro
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 8, 2015 4:15 AM in response to FatMac>MacPro

    I'm going to need to keep a Bootcamp partition so that I can directly boot into it for the performance gains that it provides (http://www.tekrevue.com/2015-vm-benchmarks-parallels-11-vs-fusion-8/).

     

    I am not sure what you mean exactly by 'dissociate'. If I boot the VM from within OSX, I would want whatever work I do there to be reflected in the Bootcamp version. Right now my usual workflow is to use bootcamp to boot into windows without the OSX/virtualization overhead when I am going to do a timelapse and only boot via OSX to do maintenance. So I don't really see the value of laying out another $50 to migrate from Parallels to VM Fusion. When I need performance I am using Bootcamp.

     

    Anyway, the reason I opened the thread was to get advice on migrating to a new SSD and create a working, larger BootCamp partition and continue to have access to it via Parallels. Searching around, there's lots of advice on how to fix this situation if you do it wrong, like editing partition tables and the like. But little advice on how to do it right from the start.

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root Sep 8, 2015 1:05 PM in response to KenV99
    Level 9 (69,659 points)
    iTunes
    Sep 8, 2015 1:05 PM in response to KenV99

    The only change I would suggest is to use Boot Camp Assistant to create the new Boot Camp partition instead of Disk Utility. Then it will be set up properly

  • by John Lockwood,Helpful

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Sep 9, 2015 7:08 PM in response to KenV99
    Level 6 (9,205 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Sep 9, 2015 7:08 PM in response to KenV99

    If you are moving to a brand new drive (as you indicate) then the following needs to be taken in to consideration.

     

    • You need to format the new drive using GUID partitioning scheme and you want initially to just create a single HFS+ volume, it is possible the new drive may have come pre-formatted as a Windows drive with MBR partitioning scheme.
    • You will want a Recovery HD partition on the drive, this is normally only created when you do a full install of OS X on to a drive, if you just clone the existing OS X volume using SuperDuper or Disk Utility (restore), or maybe even a Time Machine full restore this will not happen, Carbon Copy Cloner can also clone the Recovery HD partition. It is possible to use one of various utilities to add a Recovery HD partition later but this would of course be extra work.
    • Once you have got OS X copied back on to the new drive - which at this point should still be a single volume, you should then use Boot Camp Assistant to create a new empty Boot Camp partition, it will format this as FAT32 but that will be fine at this stage
    • You can then use either WinClone or Paragon Boot Camp Backup to copy your existing Boot Camp partition to the new one
    • You will almost certainly need to re-activate Windows Product Activation after this

  • by KenV99,

    KenV99 KenV99 Aug 24, 2016 1:46 PM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2016 1:46 PM in response to John Lockwood

    I finally got around to doing this and wanted to share my experience.

    I was migrating from the Apple installed 120GB drive to a Samsung 500Gb EVO mSATA drive.

    I purchased two adapters from Amazon: 1) an mSATA to USB 3.0 adapter and an adapter specific from my late 2012 MacBook Pro Retina. I also bought and installed Winclone.

     

    Not purchasing a kit from OWC or Transcend has one major drawback: you won't have access to the data on the Apple SSD once you replace it.

     

    Initial prep:

    • I made a Time Machine backup just in case. Also backed up windows with Macrium Reflect.
    • I used Winclone to save my existing Windows 10 Bootcamp installation after cleaning it up and running chkdsk. I put this on an external USB.
    • I used Bootcamp Assistant to create a USB with Win 10 and then loaded the Apple Drivers to it.
    • I deleted the connection to that partition from Parallels.

    With the new SSD connected via USB:

    • I booted to recovery and used Disk Utility to 'Restore' from the internal Apple SSD to the new SSD (no need for CCC).
    • I rebooted using option and booted OSX directly from the new SSD. So far, so good.
    • I rebooted back to OSX on the internal SSD and tried to use Bootcamp Assistant to create a new Bootcamp partition on the external SSD.
    • This failed. I believe it was because with the existing BC partition on the internal SSD it would not create a second BC partition. I tried dismounting the internal BC partition but that did not help.
    • Following instructions elsewhere on the web, I created a small (128mb) partition FAT partition followed by a another FAT partition for the new Bootcamp (200Gb).
    • I used Winclone to restore my backed up Bootcamp to this partition.
    • I tried to boot directly to the restored BC partition on the external SSD. This did not work.

    With the new drive in place:

    • I booted into OSX with no issue.
    • I could not boot into Bootcamp still.
    • I removed both new partitions.
    • I successfully used Bootcamp Assistant to create a new Bootcamp partition and installed a fresh copy of Win10 to it
    • I was able to successfully boot directly into the fresh copy of Win10
    • I rebooted into OSX and created a Winclone backup of the new Win10 installation.
    • I restored my old backup of Windows to the newly created partition using Winclone.
    • Examination of the files on the Bootcamp partition did not reveal any obvious errors (I have Paragon NTFS installed).
    • I tried and failed to reboot into the restored old copy of Windows.
    • I restored the copy of the fresh Windows 10 installation to the partition and successfully rebooted into it.
    • I downloaded and reinstalled all of the software to the new Win10 installation

     

    I *think* that there must be some incompatibility issue with EFI and bootloader with the Winclone backup of my old Win10 installation. I only had a relatively limited amount of software on the Windows 10 installation, so it only took a couple of hours to set it back up. Although I am all set, having the above happen would cause major issues for someone with a more elaborate Win installation. If anyone has any insight as to why the Winclone backup of my old Windows installation was never again bootable, please let me know.