Best way to clone a smaller SSD to larger SSD with OS X & Win10 dual boot

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Level 1

6 points

Best way to clone a smaller SSD to larger SSD with OS X & Win10 dual boot

Hi all,

I have an early 2009 Macbook running El Capitan OS X 10.11 AND bootcamp w/ Win10 on 128Gb SSD. Space is running full so I'm now thinking of upgrading to 480Gb/512Gb SSD. So what's the best way to clone the SSD? I had a fair bit of trouble getting all the win10 drivers working on this old machine so I'm hoping to avoid re-installing the OS.

With the dual boot config, which software would you recommend to handle this cloning from small SSD to large SSD? I noticed Carbon Copy Cloner 4.0 & Acronis True Image 2016...

Thanks again in advance for any pointer.

MacBook, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), Early 2009 Macbook White

Posted on Jul 2, 2016 6:54 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 2, 2016 5:50 PM in response to alecela

Clone OSX using CCC, and use Winclone for W10.

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Answer 2

alecela Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 5, 2016 9:14 AM in response to Loner T

Hi Loner T,

Thanks for the response. Must admit I'm slightly surprised that there isn't ONE software package that can handle my situation.

Reading up the winclone website, I got the impression that I need to install bootcamp/win10 on the new SSD before the cloning process. Is that really the case?

I would NORMALLY re-install everything from scratch to ensure least problem BUT I vividly recalled having a fair bit of problem when I installed the bootcamp/win10 last time. I was tickering w/ various versions of bootcamp/drivers set given the age of my macbook hence I was hoping by buying the winclone will free me from all these hassles. If I have to install bootcamp/win10 from scratch again before the cloning process, then this would defeat the whole purpose of buying the software...

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 5, 2016 9:40 AM in response to alecela

CloneZilla can, but with caveats. It will not expand your partitions, leaving lots of free space at the end of the disk, since is a bit-by-bit clone. It will also not change disk GUIDs, which can cause problems when both disks are simultaneously connected.

Winclone will allow you expand BC/Windows partition. Typically, I will use Time Machine to backup/restoer only OSX to the new larger SSD, and then use Winclone to restore/expand Windows as necessary. You do not need to change drivers, since you restoring to the same hardware.

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Answer 4

alecela Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 5, 2016 9:59 AM in response to Loner T

Thanks again for the quick response.

So CloneZilla will not take advantage of the additional space from the new & bigger SSD. Fair enough.

More importantly, is my observation on winclone wrong? i.e. once I retored OS X onto my new SSD, winclone will then be able to 'create' the bootcamp partition then copy everything from my old SSD bootcamp/win10 partition over and be done?

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jul 5, 2016 8:19 PM in response to alecela

These are the high-level steps (using Time Machine, CCC should be similar).

1. With old SSD in the Mac, install Winclone on the OSX side, create a backup image of Windows to an external disk (not your new SSD).

2. Restore OSX from Backup.

3. Create a FAT partition using OSX Disk Utility of the size you want your Windows to be. It cannot be smaller than the smallest (shrunk) size of the Winclone backup. Add about 4-8 GB for working space to the size of this partition, and then create it.

4. Install Winclone on the new SSD on the OSX side.

5. Restore the Winclone image to the new FAT partition on the new SSD. Expend the restore image using Winclone to the size of the FAT partition you created.

Please also see https://twocanoes.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/200158478-winclone .

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Answer 6

alecela Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 5, 2016 8:23 PM in response to Loner T

Loner T, really cannot thank you enough! But your help is definitely much appreciated! 🙂

I actually raised the same question at winclone's forum and yet to hear from their support...

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