#Winclone reviews mac os x
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#Winclone reviews windows

This DVD is a dual format DVD, so when I inserted it, it did an Autorun and fired up the main menu allowing me to “Remote install Mac OS X on a MacBook Air”, “Install the CD/DVD Sharing app” for a MacBook Air, or install the Boot Camp Drivers.

#Winclone reviews drivers

Now instead of making you burn a CD, Apple includes these drivers on your Mac Installation DVD.

#Winclone reviews pro

The next thing I knew I had to do was to update/install the drivers for all the things on the MacBook Pro such as the trackpad, iSight camera, graphics card drivers, Airport wireless, etc.

#Winclone reviews windows

I was also being prompted to reactivate Windows (more on that in a minute). Once that was done, I saw my familiar Windows XP desktop. Windows had to do some drive checking/repairing and I just let it do its thing. Fingers crossed, I rebooted my MacBook Pro, holding down the Option Key and there it was. When I returned the restore was complete (I was gone for less than an hour, but I didn’t time the restore from start to finish). I ran the restore of the Windows XP image and figured it would take a while so I went out and ran an errand. Next I plugged in my external Firewire drive containing my Winclone backup image and then I fired up Winclone on my new Mac. So now I had an empty Windows partition ready to go.

After about 5-10 minutes it was done and I just quit the app. I fired up the Boot Camp Assistant and followed the prompts to create a new Boot Camp Partition. It seemed simple enough and it worked perfectly. Since I was in no hurry to do this, I decided to send the guy an email asking about this and his response (very timely I might add) was that it was easiest to just use the Boot Camp Assistant (that comes with the Mac) to create the Windows partition and then quit the Boot Camp Assistant app and run the Winclone restore. I looked everywhere in the app for the option to create a Boot Camp partition and it’s just not there. You can even mount the image as long as you don’t use the Compressed option.Īccording to the Winclone webpage one of the bullet items said: “Create a Bootcamp partition from within Winclone.” So I took that to mean that all I would have to do is fire up Winclone on my new Mac and it would not only do the restore, but also create the new Boot Camp partition. It creates a single Image file of your Windows drive. I used the Compressed option, which took my 60GB partition down to about 23GB (keeping in mind that there was only about 30-35GB’s used on the Windows partition). When I knew that my New MacBook Pro was on the way, I fired up Winclone on my old Mac and cloned my Windows XP Boot Camp partition to an external Firewire drive. So I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving it a shot. I figured the worst that would happen is that it wouldn’t work or the restored Windows environment would be buggy/unstable and I’d just start from scratch anyway. I kept this utility in the back of my mind knowing that I would eventually be getting a new MacBook Pro and it would be worth a shot to try to use it to move over my existing Windows XP setup. It’s a Donationware/FREE Mac app that allows you to clone/backup AND restore your Windows Boot Camp Partition.

This time I didn’t have to start from scratch! I have had my New MacBook Pro for a couple of weeks now and decided this past weekend that it was time to tackle getting my Windows XP volume setup. Yes, I’ve heard stories of people using Disk Utility to do it, but I’ve yet to meet anyone that has done it 🙂 – urban legend… LOL As much as I have tried in the past, I’ve never been able to simply backup/ghost the Windows partition over to a new drive or new Mac. That’s it, you’re done! However, Apple does NOTHING to help you move your Windows Boot Camp installation over. You just run the Migration Assistant and it will handle transferring all of you data, apps, settings to the new Mac. Apple makes it really easy to migrate your Mac to a New Mac. Although I love getting the latest and greatest Mac notebook, one of the things I always dread is having to setup my Windows Boot Camp partition all over again from scratch.