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Backup bootcamp partition

How do I back up a bootcamp disk partition, or for that matter any disk partition, using Disk Utility?


For years I used a tool called "Winclone" to back up my bootcamp partition, but this tool is no longer supported and does not work under Lion.


I always thought I could just use the "New Image" button in Disk Utility to back up a disk, but I haven't been able to get this to work with a bootcamp disk. It offers to save the file, then immediate throws an error ("Invalid Argument").


I hear about various third-party disk utilities and I am extremely skeptical about going that route and getting burned again the next time there's a major system update. Plus most of those apps don't seem to work with Lion either.


It is difficult to believe that Apple would leave us with no option other to reinstall Windows from scratch. I last did this three or more years ago, and I've installed so many other pieces of software since then and spent countelss hours configuring things, it would be a nightmare if I had to start over when creating a block for block duplicate of a disk image ought to be child's play.


Will Disk Utility at least let me use the "Restore" tab to copy the partition to another disk drive? That would be acceptable.


Thanks.

Posted on Aug 18, 2011 9:26 PM

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11 replies

Aug 18, 2011 9:31 PM in response to flarosa

You need to use a Windows backup utility to backup your Windows system. Disk Utility does not backup the partition.


You can clone an OS X partition using the Restore option of DU. See:


Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility


  1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
  2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
  3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
  4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
  5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
  6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
  7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.

Aug 18, 2011 9:46 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks for the response.


Is there a Windows backup utility that will make an exact clone of the disk partition rather than just back up the files? If I needed to restore it, how would I do that, given that I probably wouldn't be able to boot to Windows if there were a major problem? I really don't need a file-based backup - I have that already - I need something that can backup and restore my entire Windows installation in one unit, and I need it to work outside of Windows.


Are you saying that DU can clone an OS X partition but not a Windows partition? I'm not sure I understand how that could be. A disk partition is just a bunch of disk sectors as far as Disk Utility is concerned. It shouldn't matter if those sectors represent an OS X volume, a Windows volume, or something else. It's pretty hard for me to believe that Apple would go to the trouble of creating such a facility and then intentionally cripple it.


Frank

Jan 24, 2012 6:49 AM in response to Granite Apple

Granite Apple wrote:


I've been wondering the same thing. I did a little exploring in Windows and followed a link to "back up your files" from the Start menu, which has an option to create a system image:


Gave this a try. Created an image without any (apparent) issues and saved it to an external HD I formated with NTFS. Now my only problem is that I can't get my Mac to boot from an install or recover disc - even when I select the install disc using the boot manager screen, it boots to my bootcamp partition, which prevents me from restoring the image since it can't restore to the boot drive.

Jan 24, 2012 9:25 AM in response to Granite Apple

Gave this a try. Created an image without any (apparent) issues and saved it to an external HD I formated with NTFS. Now my only problem is that I can't get my Mac to boot from an install or recover disc - even when I select the install disc using the boot manager screen, it boots to my bootcamp partition, which prevents me from restoring the image since it can't restore to the boot drive.


For what it's worth, I was successful in backing up and restoring my bootcamp partition using the WIndows "create a system image" feature.


A few notes:

  • Restoring from a Windows system image requires booting from a drive other than the one you're restoring to
  • When you restore the image, Windows repartions the drive you're restoring to so that it matches the image of the original drive you backed up. In my case, the resulted in my newly enlarged bootcamp partition getting resized from 250GB to the 70GB it was when I created my original (but now too small) bootcamp partition.


Now I have a bootcamp partition that is 250GB when I look at it using disk utility in OSX, but Windows shows it as 70 GB.

Backup bootcamp partition

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