How to backup and restore bootcamp partition with Windows 7 installed

Check

Acronis 2011 w/ plus pak, didn't work well previously, and they had complaints and issues with Windows 7 - on PC hardware. Check their forum

Casper 6 - known to work

Paragaon - they looked like their "Boot Camp Support" might, and they have CampTune; NTFS for OS X; and other products but backup/restore?

Ghost 15 - probably not, and they didn't like my comment so lost my userid there.

Windows 7 system backup and restore - Apple's goofy HFS read-only interferes with system and file backup so have to rename AppleHFS and AppleMNT to use. Also, MacDRive8 probably better if you need read and/or write ability to HFS.

People have used Linux CD (which is what Acronis and others use) on Mac and to update firmware etc on drives and graphic cards.

Obviously you want to test and have good backups.

If you are willing to reinstall, then all you need is Windows Easy Transfer (hidden folders like AppData need to be Custom/Advanced included) before and after; and all your updates etc. Then reinstall programs.

Ah, I don't see how backup of Windows that can't be restored is of any value or use! the whole purpose for backups is to restore files, OS, partitions, etc.

Any new progress since September?

Has anyone figured out how to image the windows partition & restore it?

I have used Winclone 2.2 to back up and restore the Boot Camp partitions on both my Aluminum MacBook and my Mac mini.

I deleted the Boot Camp partition and used Boot Camp to create a larger partition on both machines. Restoring the Winclone image was not a problem on either machine.

This was using the 64 bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

I have also used the built in Windows 7 "Backup" image to back up and restore back to a Boot Camp partition. You cannot use the Windows image to change partition sizes though. It puts EVERYTHING back just as it was when Backup created the image.

Both Winclone and the WIndows 7 Backup program's "image" worked flawlessly for me several times.

Based on The hatter's advice I added Casper to my BootCamp backup/restore programs. Fortunately I have not needed to restore but have booted both MBPs from the Casper startup CD. I have copied the procedure below. I also have Winclone and Win 7 BUP and rescue just in case.


As an alternative to booting and running the computer from the backup hard disk, the Casper Startup Disk can be used to boot the computer and copy the backup hard disk to the original hard disk. For example, with the external backup hard disk attached to the system, you can boot the computer via the Casper Startup Disk (CD) and then copy the external backup hard disk to your computer's internal hard disk.


The Casper Startup Disk (CD) is available as an optional component for Casper that must be purchased separately or obtained as part of the Casper Value Pack. It's available online at http://shop.fssdev.com and distributed as a compressed ISO file. Instructions for creating the CD are available in the Casper User Guide. See "Creating and Using the Casper Startup Disk."


Once you have created the startup disk, you would follow this general procedure to perform the restore:
1. Attach and power on the external backup drive. (NOTE: This must be done before booting from the CD.)
2. Boot the computer from the Casper Startup CD. The boot process may take several minutes to complete. When finished, you will see the normal Casper console menu (e.g., Copy Drive, Create Drive, Remove Drive, Explore, Exit).
3. Click Copy Drive, and reverse the procedure you used to complete the original backup – e.g., select your external drive as the source and the internal drive as the destination.
NOTE: When the system is booting and running from the Casper Startup Disk, the drive letters and/or disk unit numbers assigned to the hard disks may be different than when the system is booted normally. EXERCISE CAUTION WHEN SELECTING THE DESTINATION DISK. For example, while the computer's internal hard disk will likely be identified as disk 1, this may not be the case. If you are unsure of the drive letters assigned to your external vs. internal drive, click Explore. Casper Explorer will show your internal and external hard disk and the drive letter(s) associated with each. Use the model number listed under the Description column and/or size to identify the disks.

I use Winclone and have no problem with using it Windows 7 64 bit.

In fact I have just used it to move my copy of Windows 7 to my new SSD Drive and Carbon Copy Cloner to move OS 10.6.4

toocool4 -
What you did, is what everyone wants to do, but many report problems.
If you get the chance, be great if you could detail the process and version of tools and settings used.

Okay what I did is as follows

Open Winclone go into Preferences from top to bottom

Uncheck Check for new version at startup ( as I like to do it myself)

Check Remove pagefile.sys from source partition prior to imaging to save space

When cloning NTFS partitions:

Choose Use “special” compressed image format that is not mountable, but is smaller and restores faster.

Everything after this is unchecked as I do not use Vista, XP etc

Now just before you start your cloning, if you are going to a smaller drive don’t forget to shrink the Windows partition.

Go ahead and do your clone.

After I did all this I then too out the internal drive and put it into a firewire enclosure.
I then put the new SSD into the Macbook pro. I then booted up from my old hard drive in the external enclosure. Now I formatted the new SSD. Once done I use Carbon Copy Cloner to restore the OSX partition to the entire volume of the SSD.
Once this was done I re-booted into the internal SSD, then ran boot camp assistant to create a partition for Windows.
Now at this point you can either use the Windows 7 CD to format the partition to NTFS. If you do it this way Windows 7 will align the SSD partition properly.

Once done boot back into OSX and run Winclone, just put the Windows image back. Don’t forget to use Winclone to expand the Windows OS to use the extra space on the drive if you had moved onto a bigger partition.

You are now done.

Hope this helps.