HT201456: Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions

Learn about Boot Camp 5.1: Frequently asked questions
goodoldbob
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Can I Backup and Restore my bootcamp partition

I'm upgrading my MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011) with a 1 TB SSD

I have a Time machine back-up of my Macintosh HD but I can't back-up my BOOTCAMP drive (partition)

Is there a specific procedure to follow to save my bootcamp partition?

MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 16, 2015 3:50 PM

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goodoldbob

Q: Can I Backup and Restore my bootcamp partition

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  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Mar 16, 2015 3:56 PM in response to goodoldbob
    Level 7 (23,658 points)
    Safari
    Mar 16, 2015 3:56 PM in response to goodoldbob

    Time Machine does not normally support backing up non-OSX file systems. It is possible to split the Time Capsule disk into two parts, HFS+ and NTFS and do it that way, but it is unsupported. You can use an external HDD (non-TM) and use Windows Backup to create a backup, if the HDD is formatted for NTFS.

  • by goodoldbob,

    goodoldbob goodoldbob Mar 16, 2015 4:54 PM in response to Loner T
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2015 4:54 PM in response to Loner T

    Can I restore to a newly installed Solid State Drive?

  • by Loner T,Helpful

    Loner T Loner T Mar 16, 2015 5:55 PM in response to goodoldbob
    Level 7 (23,658 points)
    Safari
    Mar 16, 2015 5:55 PM in response to goodoldbob

    If you restore it to the new 1TB SSD, you will not be able to install Windows on it. The new 1TB disk will end up with partitions - EFI, OS X, Recovery HD, Windows Backup. This will exceed the 4-partition limit that Windows uses to be installed on a single disk.

     

    There is a method of moving partitions around between the two disks to use the 1TB SSD as a Windows backup target and moving backup around, but a third NTFS-formatted external drive would make the exercise much faster and safer.