Restore Windows 10 system image via Boot Camp?

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Level 1

13 points

Restore Windows 10 system image via Boot Camp?

I've been having some trouble with restoring a Windows 10 system image on a Boot Camp partition.

I installed Windows 10 via Boot Camp some months ago when my main OS was Sierra. After the small partition space filled up quickly, I decided to save my complete instance of Windows 10 through a backup, and a system image (by which time I had already upgraded to High Sierra). These files were placed on an external hard drive.

I removed my Windows 10 partition via Boot Camp Assistant, and did a clean reinstall with a larger partition. From this point, I realized I needed to use the Windows Media Creation to boot the restore from, so I used a USB flash drive for this purpose.

Now, I boot my MacBook (while holding opt/alt), select the EFI USB flash drive to boot from, go to the system image recovery, load my external hard drive, and it even shows the backed up system image, however I'm getting a message that says:

"To restore this computer, Windows needs to format the drive that the Windows Recovery Environment is currently running on. To continue with the restore, shut down this computer and boot it from a Windows installation disc or a system repair disc and then try the restore again. If you don't have a system repair disc, you can create one now."

I thought I booted the computer via the restore flash drive?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)

Posted on Dec 25, 2017 6:20 PM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Dec 26, 2017 8:22 AM in response to Abelaj50

Windows System Image restore assumes that it owns the entire hard disk, not just the designated partition. You need to fully install W10 on the larger partition, and then use the restore function, not using the installation media.

Be aware that such a restore has problems. The larger disk partition size does not match the smaller size of the C: because Windows cannot 'expand' C: to fit the partition size.

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Dec 27, 2017 5:46 AM in response to Abelaj50

No, you do not need to delete the macOS HS part. You just cannot use the Installer to restore a System Image. Install Windows fully and then restore Windows.

Also, there are commercial tools, for example Winclone, which may help you do this much more easily.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 28, 2018 11:08 AM in response to Nhils

Create a USB2 Flash drive installer using the Create+Download option.

Create a FAT partition using Disk Utility, and install GPT Fdisk (https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/) and if the hybrid MBR is missing, use the Rebuild MBR section from Re: El Capitan has deleted my bootcamp windows partition as a reference to create one.

After the MBR has been created, boot from the USB2 Installer, and select the Windows icon (not EFI Boot) and try to install Windows. Once installed, verify the BIOS Mode, which should now be Legacy.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 26, 2018 3:19 PM in response to Nhils

Your 2013 Mac supports both EFI and bios installation. Your install on the internal disk needs to match the system image mode.

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 26, 2018 2:39 PM in response to Nhils

You do not need a CD/DVD disc, but you do need to build a Windows Recovery USB disk when the installation has not been restored. Once you build it, then you can try and restore, but be careful, because if it wants to erase the destination disk, you will lose macOS.

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 28, 2018 9:53 AM in response to Nhils

The problem is due to High Sierra. Under Sierra, you computer would have used BIOS. Apple does not seem to have rigorously tested HS on older Macs. The late 2013 and 2014 Macs can support either mode.

Use BCA to remove the current installation on the internal disk, and use BCA to install a new copy. Can you look at Bootcamp User Interface and tell me which of the three styles do you see? I expect the Create-Download-Install UI.

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Jan 26, 2018 2:16 PM in response to Nhils

It is possible to restore a Windows image, but you need to have a working installation which is large (disk-specs wise) and then use the System Image Restore from within Windows.

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Answer 8

Abelaj50 Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 27, 2017 1:42 AM in response to Loner T

Thank you for your response, I really appreciate you for this.

So I would have to delete my High Sierra partition, and have a sole OS of Windows 10 on my MacBook? Is this possible? Also, what kind of problems could I potentially run into, and how big of a risk is it? I'm trying to avoid having to re-install my applications and settings on my new Win10 partition as much as possible, but will if there is no safe workaround.

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Answer 9

Abelaj50 Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 27, 2017 5:01 PM in response to Loner T

Windows 10 is fully installed, and I am getting the same message when I try to restore from within Windows (Settings>Update & Security>Recovery>Advanced startup). I will attach the message error below. (Could not rotate the picture sorry).

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Answer 10

Nhils

Level 1

8 points

Jan 26, 2018 1:18 PM in response to Abelaj50

I have the exact same issue!
I would be so grateful if anyone has a solution to this...
Why does windows need a CD/DVD with the OS iso on it, when it is already on the USB drive 😐 ?......
Is there any way to restore my system image from my external hard drive?...

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Answer 11

Nhils

Level 1

8 points

Jan 26, 2018 2:35 PM in response to Loner T

Well, this is when it gets tricky for me :/
To start fresh:
I have a time machine backup of my OSX system, and a system image backup of my previous BootCamp Windows partition.

I made a new bootcamp partition, bigger than the previous one (90GB), I have the OS iso on a USB drive, and the backup image on an external hard drive.

At no point during the Windows installation I am offered to restore my backup. The installation goes through, and I get a fresh install.

When I go into windows>settings>recovery>restart
I go into troubleshooting>restore from a previous image

the computer restarts??
It asks me what drive to restore from, I choose my external hard drive, it then displays the message pictured above, in Abelaj50's message.

I have the same issue as he does, I believe 🙂

My computer having no CD/DVD player, I'm stuck... (which is stupid considering the fact that I have the installation ISO on a USB drive).

I tried copying the backup image onto the new windows install and restore from there but it still asks for a CD/DVD installation disk and we're back to square one!

thank you so much for taking the time to untangle this with us 🙂 !

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Answer 12

Nhils

Level 1

8 points

Jan 26, 2018 3:40 PM in response to Loner T

I don’t really understand...

Is there a way to make my windows partition BIOS based? I never got to chose between BIOS or EFI (—to be honest, I’m not familiar with EFI at all, I’ll look into it a bit!) when creating the BootCamp partition or the recovery drive :s

I feel like I’m going to be stuck on this one :(

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