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Backup Windows side of Boot Camp?

Backup Windows side of Boot Camp?

I'd like to be able to do a system image backup of the Windows side of Boot Camp from within Windows that can be restored to a newly created Boot Camp partition (of the same or larger size).

Asked by: Guest | Views: 324
Total answers/comments: 2
Guest [Entry]

"I'd like to be able to do a system
image backup of the windows side of
boot camp from within windows that can
be restored to a newly created boot
camp partition (of the same or larger
size).

The issue here is that you can't safely backup a running system when you are booted from that partition.

If you expect to use bootcamp, then you will need to back up the partition with an utility that is bootcamp aware. Ghost, and Windows System restore expect a stock Windows configuration, which doesn't include the EFI boot partition that is necessary for bootcamp.

Winclone is typically faster, and easier to use then most of the Windows tools I have used in the past..."
Guest [Entry]

I figured out a backup/restore solution for the Boot Camp partition. I'm running on Macbook Pro 13" w/ Mac OS X 10.7.3. Within my Boot Camp partition, I'm running Windows 7 SP1 [x64]. Acronis True Image Home 2012 installed and runs fine from within Windows. I setup a scheduled backup, and it's working. For the restore process I discovered that I can't boot my Mac directly from the Acronis recovery CD. But using VMware Fusion (version 4), I was able to attach the Acronis CD to my Boot Camp virtual machine and boot from it. I just did a restore this way and it worked. I restarted and went directly back into Boot Camp, and Windows 7 was restored perfectly.