Has anyone sucessfully used the new Winclone 3.2 to backup and restore Bootcamp partittion with Windows 7 Ultimate on MBP with Lion 10.7.3?

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Has anyone sucessfully used the new Winclone 3.2 to backup and restore Bootcamp partittion with Windows 7 Ultimate on MBP with Lion 10.7.3?

Bought late 2011 MBP 17" with Bootcamp partition (Windows 7 Ultimate) and Lion OS 10.7.3

I am trying to make a backup of Bootcamp partition before I start using my laptop but it proves to be a difficult task.
I don’t have any installation disk for Windows 7 and I am afraid that, if a disaster strikes and I loose the HDD, my copy of Windows will be gone.
The only way to restore Windows partition according to what I read so far is to do the following:
• Use Windows to backup data from BootCamp Partition
• Reinstall OS Lion formatting full hard drive in the process
• Use BootCamp Assistant to create BootCamp partition
• Install Windows 7 on bootcamp partion
• Use Windows 7 to restore data from backup file created in the first step
The only problem is that I don't any image or disk to re-install Windows 7. With Windows 7 I can create only 'repair disk' (for what it is worth) or system image but according to other users it would format the whole drive including OS Lion partition when reinstalling

Winclone 3.2 seems like the answer to my prayers but would like to hear from the users if it worked for them (most imprtantly, did the restore work?).

MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3), BootCamp with Windows 7 Ultimate

Posted on May 14, 2012 12:35 AM

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Answer 1

JBLTZ

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May 14, 2012 12:51 PM in response to Swavek Perth

Hi,

I'm in the midst of an ugly situation similar to what many have suffered. I used the Win 7 Backup/Restore Panel to make a .vhd of my system, and I've been trying to restore it to a new HDD Bootcamp partition for several days. I'm on an MBP 5,1 running 10.6.x that had a disk failure as I was upgrading to Lion.

I have been lucky in that I was able to restore the recovery image onto the original damaged HDD. I have also repaired the Leopard drive by running fsck in Terminal under Lion. I ran fsck twice before it repaired successfully, so don't give up if it doesn't work the first time.

To recover the .vhd file, I used WinImage (shareware) installed on a clean install of Win 7 on the new HDD. This took some time as I had to swap out the old drive and the new one by hand to check things out. Don't do anything else while WinImage is running, because it can introduce errors ( I know this from experience). Also, for security, I disabled the wireless network while WinImage was running. Select the letter of the drive you want to copy the image on block by block (and be sure you pick the correct one), under the disk menu, and then under the same menu, select "write disk".

Having recovered the original windows drive partition, I booted up in Leopard and used WinClone to make an image for the new drive on an external ExFat volume. I then re-installed the new HDD and formatted the Bootcamp partition as Fat32. I am now using WinClone to write the image to that formatted bootcamp partition. If this works, I'll be a happy camper. I should note that I was in a relatively good situation because I had a current full .vhd image, I'm using the same MBP, and I was able to recover both drives.

I will update this thread when I determine what the end result has been.

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Answer 2

JBLTZ

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May 14, 2012 3:04 PM in response to JBLTZ

The procedure I outlined above did work for me. I think an important question for someone who has their Win 7 installation locked up in .vhd with no ability to reinstall it on a functional disk is:

Can you use WinImage to write the .vhd file onto a formatted HDD and then use WinClone to copy that image into a partition and use it on an MBP.

For me, regular WinClone imaging is going to become a habit...

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Answer 3

Swavek Perth Author

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May 14, 2012 3:57 PM in response to JBLTZ

Happy for you JBLTZ that you managed to recover Windows partition. I am not at the disaster recovery stage yet - just trying to get ready for it if it ever strikes (or when it strikes). Encouraging to hear that Wincolone worked on OS 10.6.x. Hoping for someone to confirm that it works well with OS 10.7.x

I was under impression that FAT32 is not the best formating option - NTFS being much better. Is it Winclone requirement that your Bootcamp partition is formated Fat32?

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Answer 4

JBLTZ

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May 14, 2012 4:29 PM in response to Swavek Perth

The image created by WinClone in Snow Leopard was installed by WinClone under Lion. It did work for me. These are the directions I followed:

https://www.twocanoes.com/asset.php?id=9

Everything I read said that trying to create or edit an NTFS drive under OSX will bring you nothing but sorrow.

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Answer 5

Swavek Perth Author

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May 14, 2012 5:54 PM in response to JBLTZ

Thanks JBLTZ, looks like Winclone 3.2 is the way to go. The FAT32 -NTFS is explained in step 13 of the procedure lin you sent to me (you format it FAT32 but restore process converts it to NTFS). The only confusing bit for me is Step 18.

https://www.twocanoes.com/asset.php?id=9

In step 12 and 13 you create a new Windows FAT32 partition on your destination drive using Disk Utility but in Step 18 it says:

Prior to restoring, create a Windows partition using Boot Camp Assistant, and then restore the image to this new partition by selecting the Windows partition below.

This sounds confusing to me. Is this something that Winclone does as part of restrore or is it the user who has to open Boot Camp Assistant and do?

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Answer 6

JBLTZ

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May 14, 2012 8:08 PM in response to Swavek Perth

I don't know the answer to your question. When I used WinClone, I had a fully installed version of Win7 because I needed it to run WinImage to copy the .vhd file.

You can use BootCamp to create a partition, but not actually run the full install. This would likely create all the infrastructure. You might be able to clarify this with an email to WinClone's current developer.

I would note that when you're in the situation I was in, spending another two hours installing a full version of Win 7, only to turn around and wipe it out would be a small price to pay.

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Answer 7

Swavek Perth Author

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May 18, 2012 5:37 PM in response to JBLTZ

Got the response from Winclone regarding my confusion in step 18 of the procedure to create bootcamp backup. The message displayed on the screenshot under step 18 can be ignored. It refers to creating a Windows partition using Boot Camp Assistant but in fact this partition has already been created in earlier steps using Disk Utility.

I bought Winclone 3.3 as it promises to make backup and restore of Bootcamp partition with Windows 7 on it really easy, the steps to do this task are easy and well documented, and the owner of the program was very prompt responding to my queries.

I performed the following as an insurance against disaster prior to creating Winclone image:

Since my Windows 7 came pre-installed but without any installation disk I used Windows 7 to create 'Windows 7 system image' . From what I read on forums the system image created using Windows 7 apparently can't be used to easily restore Boot Camp partition (as it wipes out OS X in the process). I created this image as a last resort backup rescue - some users reported that it can be used to recover Windows but the process is painful and involve a number of steps, swapping hard drives, and paid software to assist in the process. I did not bother to make notes on this process - thanks to Winclone I am not suppose to need this backup if everything works as promised
I also created 'Windows 7 repair disk' prior to running Winclone. Not sure what the value of it will be but again, this is something I did just in case I need it in the future

Then I installed Winclone 3.3 and created Windows 7 Ultimate Boot Camp image without any problems (on MBP running Lion 10.7.4). My Winclone image file of 150GB Windows 7 Boot Camp partition prior to installing any programs and without any data on it ended up being nearly 8GB (saved to the external USB HDD).

I have not restored and don't plan to restore the Winclone 3.3 image just to test if it works (don't want to risk loosing my perfectly well running Windows 7 in case of any disaster). So ultimately only time or experience of other users will tell me if I spent my money well buying Winclone 3.3. I know it worked for you JBLTZ so hopefully it will work for me when I need it one day.

Cheers

Swavek

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