Problem: Mac OSX does not offer a tool to copy or backup the BootCamp Windows partition. E.g. the Disk Utility is not able to copy or backup NTFS partitions. Besides that the selection of Disk Management tools like partition manager is from my perspective very poor.
Solution: Happily Mac OSX is based on Unix. This offers the possibility to use the tool dd. Following steps need to be followed:
- If you wish to backup the partition to an external hard drive, plug that one in. Make sure the drive contains enough space to store the image. If you intend to clone the partition, make sure the drive contains a empty partition of equal or larger size.
- Open a Terminal session (Applications – Utilities – Terminal)
- Type in following command and press Enter.
diskutil listYou will see a table with four columns showing your connected disks and partitions. Locate the BootCamp partition, and make a note of its identifier, e.g. “/dev/disk0s3“.
- Unmount that BootCamp partition with following command.
diskutil unmount /dev/disk0s3Make sure to replace “disk0s3” with your BootCamp partition identifier.
- If you intend to clone the BootCamp partition, type in following command.
diskutil unmount /dev/disk1s1Make sure to replace “disk1s1” with your external disk partition identifier. Do not unmount that partition if you intend to create an image from the BootCamp partition.
- In order to clone the BootCamp partition to another partition (e.g. on your external hard drive) type in following command.
sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s3 of=/dev/disk1s1Make sure to replace “disk0s3” with your BootCamp partition identifier and “disk1s1” with your external hard drive partition identifier.
- In order to create an image from the BootCamp partition to a specific file location (e.g. in your home dir) type in following command.
sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s3 of=~/Bootcamp.isoMake sure to replace “disk0s3” with your BootCamp partition identifier.
It is recommended to compress the image in order to save disk space. Instead of using above mentioned command, please use that following.
sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s3 | gzip > ~/BootCamp.iso.gz
If I clone my Bootcamp partition to an external HD this way, will I be able to boot Windows from that external HD?
Ok, perhaps you could help with this.
If I do load it onto an external HD and I want to load it back onto my mac what steps would I take?
I copied a preview copy of my mac HD using diskwarrior. Was not able to replace it..disk it to badly corrupted.
So I think my steps are:
I have the MACHD from diskwarrior copied (this is the restructured and rebuilt version.
1.Copy Bootcamp image using above method.
2. Reformat my HD
3. Install MacOSX
4. Migration assistant to external with copied MACHD.
5. Reload Bootcamp image?
Does this sound correct? If is what do I use to get bootcamp off the external and onto the MAC? You have
sudo dd if=~/Bootcamp.iso of=/dev/disk0s3 but this is only if it was an iso file and I am not sure if this is the same as getting it off the external.
Any help would be appreciated.
Not sure, but I think it won’t work!
Here is a big question. I want to save the bootcamp clone to my external HDbut I do not want the drive to reformat.
sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s3 of=/dev/disk1s1 (This command will overwrite everthing on the drive)
I have a 1TB and I want my other things to remain after saving a copy of the clone. What commands would I use to save the bootcamp in addition to everything that is on the harddrive already.
sudo dd if=/dev/disk0s3 | gzip > ~/BootCamp.iso.gz
something along this but to my external. So it basically adds instead of replaces everything on the drive.
I read that the command to save to the external erases everythning that is on the external. PLEASE HELP, hopefully fast. Thanks.
Jerry
And how do i restore the zipped file ?
That is easy:
sudo dd if=~/Bootcamp.iso of=/dev/disk0s3
Regards
Thanks for posting, works fine. How to easily restore the created bootcamp.iso in case the bootcamp partition needs restored ?