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Recover Windows 10 from System Image under Boot Camp

Hello everyone,



I am having problems with Windows on my iMac.



So I installed Win10 using the Boot Camp Assistant, partitioning 300GB for it. After a while, I realised I should have partitioned way more, so I tried looking for a way to extend said partition to 500GB - I tried with a 3rd party app and failed. I then created a System Image of Windows, restored the Fusion Drive to a single OS X partition and reinstalled Windows with BCA - by then I had decided to partition 1TB for each OS. I installed it without any problems and tried to recover Windows from the aforementioned System Image. But instead it apparently formatted my entire SDD, including the OS X partition, which the iMac doesn't boot into anymore.



[I have a Time Machine backup and all, I also know that I'll have to reinstall OS X and then restore it from that backup.]



The question is how can do what I attempted without having Windows format the whole **** thing. If it isn't possible at all to recover from the image, I will be forced to "start from scratch" and I would really prefer not to, so 3rd party apps are welcome at this point. Also, can I recover single files from the System Image?



Thank you for your time,

Bruncky



PS.: Since the Apple employee didn't know right away what I was talking about: in Windows, a System Image is a 1:1 copy of my entire Windows partition, as opposed to a backup that only saves files and not apps and app-generated content.


PS2.: If I reinstall OS X from Recovery Mode, do I have to make any specific configurations regarding the Fusion Drive?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 2TB FD, R9 M395X, 3.3GHz i5, 32GB

Posted on Jan 29, 2016 9:31 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 29, 2016 12:17 PM

BrunoBrunck wrote:


But instead it apparently formatted my entire SDD, including the OS X partition, which the iMac doesn't boot into anymore.

This issue stems from a bad assumption made during such restores by the Windows Restore process. It assumes that the restore is being done to dedicated disk which has nothing else. Winclone is better solution on Macs instead of Windows System Image backups. I have some time with a couple of users and tried with varying levels of success. Please see Bootcamp unrecognized after restoring Windows from system image as an example.


The question is how can do what I attempted without having Windows format the whole **** thing. If it isn't possible at all to recover from the image, I will be forced to "start from scratch" and I would really prefer not to, so 3rd party apps are welcome at this point.

Try Winclone.


PS.: Since the Apple employee didn't know right away what I was talking about: in Windows, a System Image is a 1:1 copy of my entire Windows partition, as opposed to a backup that only saves files and not apps and app-generated content.

There may be some confusion between System Image and File History. Time Machine has no concept of a System Image, so it may also be "alien" terminology.


PS2.: If I reinstall OS X from Recovery Mode, do I have to make any specific configurations regarding the Fusion Drive?

Not unless you have built a custom Fusion drive. If you have a Bootcamp partition on the Fusion drive, you want to ensure you do not overwrite BC/Windows, unless a wipe/restore is your goal.

5 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 29, 2016 12:17 PM in response to BrunoBrunck

BrunoBrunck wrote:


But instead it apparently formatted my entire SDD, including the OS X partition, which the iMac doesn't boot into anymore.

This issue stems from a bad assumption made during such restores by the Windows Restore process. It assumes that the restore is being done to dedicated disk which has nothing else. Winclone is better solution on Macs instead of Windows System Image backups. I have some time with a couple of users and tried with varying levels of success. Please see Bootcamp unrecognized after restoring Windows from system image as an example.


The question is how can do what I attempted without having Windows format the whole **** thing. If it isn't possible at all to recover from the image, I will be forced to "start from scratch" and I would really prefer not to, so 3rd party apps are welcome at this point.

Try Winclone.


PS.: Since the Apple employee didn't know right away what I was talking about: in Windows, a System Image is a 1:1 copy of my entire Windows partition, as opposed to a backup that only saves files and not apps and app-generated content.

There may be some confusion between System Image and File History. Time Machine has no concept of a System Image, so it may also be "alien" terminology.


PS2.: If I reinstall OS X from Recovery Mode, do I have to make any specific configurations regarding the Fusion Drive?

Not unless you have built a custom Fusion drive. If you have a Bootcamp partition on the Fusion drive, you want to ensure you do not overwrite BC/Windows, unless a wipe/restore is your goal.

Jan 29, 2016 12:23 PM in response to Loner T

Thank you for the answer! I'll definitely try Winclone. About the reinstall, Windows had formatted the whole thing as NTFS, so Recovery Mode didn't recognize the FD. I then formatted it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), like usual, and it did find it. Is that a problem? Sorry for not elegantly quoting you, I can't seem to do that on the iPhone 😝

Recover Windows 10 from System Image under Boot Camp

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