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Level 1

7 points

Windows 7 Backup in Boot Camp?

Hello:

I have a MBP with Windows 7 on a boot camp partition. I have tried to find a good solution to image or clone the Windows installation for fast restores but have come up short. Many suggestions, most flawed or untested.

The most recent was a suggestion to use the built-in Windows 7 backup which does create an image and data backup but does it work for Boot Camp? I not only need to know if it works for creating a backup/image but also if it would actually perform a sucessful restore?

An ideal solution would be an OS X app like SuperDuper or a A Windows app like acronis that can do the COMPLETE drive including boot camp.

I would like to hear from anyone who has successfully backed up and performed a full recovering to a Windows BC installation.

I know that some folks will say, just reinstall Windows but that is time consuming when you concider all the updates, apps and finally data restore.

To complicate matters, I have replaced my optical drive with another HD so the optical drive is now external via USB. This really complicated installing Windows in a BC partition (see other threads).

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and comments.

MBP 2.8ghz i7, 17" Hi-Res/AG, Mac OS X (10.6.7), SSD + 750gb WD Scorpio Black - 10 second boot

Posted on Apr 27, 2011 2:47 PM

23 replies

DIESEL-X

Level 1

49 points

May 4, 2012 7:41 AM in response to The hatter

I agree, it realy is best policy to leave both OS's (OS X and Windows Bootcamp) as 'read-only' privelages to each other. They can serve to interfear with each other in ways that is not alway immediately noticeable and can generaly affect each other in an unwanted manner. In the past some programs like MacDrive helped towards starting a chain of events that effected the performance of OS X.

If you absolutely must have some kind of sharing or write permission state between the two OS's, then something like Parallels appears to deal with it more appropriately, albeit with virtual Windows machine performance as apposed to raw native boot performance.

May 4, 2012 1:03 PM in response to Brumey

I own CampTune 9.5, and I have used it, but I have not used the backup/restore features. I also own Paragon Backup & Recovery v11, and I have used that to backup/restore a Boot Camp Partition.

I have also used Clonezilla to make a full backup & restore of my MacOS and BootCamp to a clean drive.

May 10, 2012 1:30 AM in response to GeekBoy.from.Illinois

I have latest MBP with BootCamp partition with Windows 7 Ultimate 64x , OS Lion, and Mware Fusion 4.x. I used TimeMachine to backup the OS partion but don't seem to find a proven reliable way to backup the BootCamp Partition.

Did you try backup/restore with Windows 7 running on your BootCamp and Lion OS?

Did Paragon program restored BootCamp partition to your hard drive without touching the OS Lion partition?

Was it an easy process and if not, could you share with us what steps you took to create the backup and restore Bootcamp partition?

dalstott

Level 4

2,639 points

May 10, 2012 9:09 AM in response to Swavek Perth

Go to this site and read about Winclone. It is used when booted in the Mac OS X partiton. I used it with 10.6 without any problems. When 10.7 was introduced many had problems. The original publisher was replaced last year and the new owner has an active site with a forum. I currently use it to back up two different Boot Camp installations, but haven't needed for rescue yet.

http://twocanoes.com/winclone.php

PS Consider having a bootable clone of your Mac OS X in addition to Time Machine as this is much more versatile fo rescue and trouble shooting.

May 10, 2012 9:30 AM in response to dalstott

dalstott wrote:

The original publisher was replaced last year and the new owner has an active site with a forum.

Thanks so much I had been checking in for months on an updated version of Winclone but given up - glad to hear the product is back.

May 10, 2012 9:00 PM in response to dalstott

Thanks Dalstott for the info. Checked the site - sounds the most promissing of all info so far, would be nice to hear from those who had sucessfuly restored their BootCamp partition :-)

dalstott

Level 4

2,639 points

May 11, 2012 8:23 AM in response to Swavek Perth

Why not start a new thread "Has anyone used the new Winclone with Lion successfully"

May 14, 2012 5:44 AM in response to dalstott

I did - will see if there are any answers.

Windows 7 Backup in Boot Camp?