Cloning harddrive including bootcamp partition

So yea, harddrives seemed to have dropped in price since the last time I looked and I can get a 7200 320gig for around 120$.

But my main issue is how does backing up/cloning your harddrive work?

For osx I'd use Carbon Copy Cloner, which looks like it would do exactly what I need it to do. But what do you use for the bootcamp partition?

Coming from the windows side of things, dealing with dual booting operating systems, it's always been a bit finicky for me when I used windows desktops.

Right now I'm guessing I'd use CCC to backup OSX, and then backup my windows partition using Winclone. Then install the new hdd, run bootcamp installer so that OSX does whatever it has to do the MBR or partition table, and after that restore the winclone image to the new bootcamp partition. I can see windows, bootcamp, and other things not liking this method, and I'd guess problems would probably pop up.

So yea, I'm sure I'm not the first to want to upgrade to a larger harddrive and still keep my bootcamp and osx data/partitions.

Can anyone else share their experiences/solutions on how they did it?

 

I'm not sure how it works with OSX, but a linux live-CD solution like CloneZilla might do everything all at once...you should check it out:
http://www.clonezilla.org/

 

Is there a problem with using Disk Utility? Just go to the Restore tab and drag the disks from the left hand menu onto the address boxes.

 

Hmm, thats an interesting option.

Although the main issue I'm thinking I'll come across is that since it will be a larger hdd, the partition size will be different from the current ones. So instead of a straight "clone" I just need a bootable clone of the data, not neccesairly the partition size and so forth.

I'm not sure if clonezilla can do that, but it may be an option, if I can't find anything else.

@budding, is it really that simple? I didn't think that would work with the windows bootcamp partition.

 

I've made a duplicate of my entire Macbook HD using Disk Utility once. I could then boot both OS X and Boot Camp from it by hooking it to my Macbook via USB and holding the Option key during restart.

 

Bump for this thread!
Sulkorp, how did you end up doing this. I am trying to do the same thing right now with my macbook. All help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Use winclone http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25932

*Edit* NVM he said to use that already.

Anyways, What I did was Restore my OS X partition first, then use disk utility to make a partition the size I wanted for my bootcamp then used winclone to restore my bootcamp partition.

 

I had to do this recently with my new SSD drive.

I did not use the Disk Utility method simply because Disk Utility can't back up Boot Camp Partitions.


Here's what I used:

1. Winclone + Shrink (for resize ability): Winclone your Windows Partition as an image onto your OSX drive, you must have enough space or you need another external drive(so 3 drives in total). Then use the image Shrink tool from Winclone and shink that partition to a smaller size, this allows you to clone to any sized partition smaller or bigger than original.

2a. SuperDuper: Create a new 1 GUID partition(use the entire drive!) on your new drive via USB external case. Do not make it 2 partitions, you won't be able to create the Boot Camp partition with the Boot Camp Wizard. Use Superduper and clone the source OS X partition over to the new partition you just created. Once your done, swap the drives into your notebook and run the new drive. After you're done use Boot Camp Wizard to recreate your Boot Camp Partition. Quit after it creates the partition and asks you for the Windows Install DVD.

2b. Fresh install + TimeMachine(free method): Backup your OSX partition with Time Machine on a separate drive (You need 3 drives for this; original+ external drive + target disk). Install the blank new drive into your notebook and boot OS X install using your original Leopard DVD, format the drive as a single GUID partition. After the format do a Time Machine restore using the TimeMachine Drive attached, you do not need to install OSX over again(correction). After you're done use Boot Camp Wizard to recreate your Boot Camp Partition. Quit after it creates the partition and asks you for the Windows Install DVD.

3. Restore Winclone Windows partition onto the new blank Boot Camp partition created by Boot Camp Wizard.


This whole process should take at least 4-5 hours to complete depending on your drive speeds and size. The larger the size the longer the time. This was the fastest method I could find. I tried looking up Coriolis and their solution but it would cost money for the Boot CD/DVD utility. My method above is the cheapest/no cost method.

 

Thanks D3x! that is what i needed! Now I just need to buy a usb external case! any suggestions. thanks

 

Just buy what ever will work with your drive.

 

Made corrections, I almost implied that you needed to install OSX completely. That's not true, you can do a Time Machine restore directly from the Leopard Install once it's fully booted.

 

not sure what to do with superduper.. do I hit "Backup-all files" or "sandbox-shared users and applications" also I could not shrink the winclone file for some reason.. it kept coming up with an error.. please chime in D3X. Thanks

 

so I went with the Backup-all files on super duper, and If i restart my computer and hold down option I can start up from my new drive, via external case.. as a matter of fact I am on it while I am typing this... but when I put it in my computer and turn it on I get the start up "chime" and then it goes to a blinking file with a "?" in it.??? .. can anyone tell me what is wrong?!
Thanks

 

UPDATE* I put the hard drive back in and the same ? mark file thing happened so i took it back out and then put it back in again and now it works....weird right?... well anywyas back to my ? about the winclone.. It won't let me "shrink" the winclone file (as D3X said to do) thats on my external drive for some reason... can I still make it work?

 

WinClone is really picky, if you get an error or some sort, you need to run some disk checks on the Windows Partition. There might be some bad sectors, links files, or inconsistencies on the file table; these need to be 100% corrected before WinClone would work properly.
What kind of file system is your Boot Camp? FAT32 or NTFS?

If it's FAT32, just go to Disk Utility and consecutively do a few repairs until it's error free. If it's NTFS then you need to boot into Windows and run CHKDSK. If you have Paragon for NTFS then use Disk Utility and the same way for FAT32.