Possible to get a complete backup (drive image)?

When I was using a laptop running Windows, I would make a complete drive image backup. If something happened, I could take out the old drive and pop in the backup and be up and running without reinstalling any software. I would only lose data that had changed since my last backup. That has saved me more than once.

I used Casper (www.fssdev.com), and I could update the backup with files that had changed without shutting down Windows.

Now that I'm using Windows on a Mac, the major thing missing for me is this security blanket of having a complete drive image as a backup, in case something happens to this hard drive or laptop. I don't want to set everything up again. If I lost my MacBook Pro, but still had the hard drive backup, I could buy a used MacBook and put in my backup drive.

I am running Windows XP Pro under Parallels 5, and I have Windows 7 installed via BootCamp. Has anybody done this?

 

your xp vm is just a file on your mac's filesystem. copy the file to an external drive and voila you have a complete backup. the bootcamp partition you should be able to backup using whatever tool you normally used on windows.

 

Tony, please help

I can't follow your reply but I desperately need help with a backup.
Where is my "xp vm"? I don't have a file by that name. What is the name that Parallels gives it on my disk? Should the external disk be a normally formatted mac disk or should it be a Windows friendly formatted disk?
Sorry for my newbie understanding and thank you for your help.
John

 

Use GrandPerspective

One of the easiest ways I used to find my Windows VM file was using a free program called GrandPerspective. The program scans your entire hard drive, then represents all your files and directories as squares of different colors and sizes. It's a GREAT tool to answer the question, "what files/directories are using the most space on my hard drive?"

Your Windows VM file will stick out as one of the larger squares on your drive.

 

Id like to follow up on this a bit.

I have a 2008 MBP that is set up with parallels. I installed xp via bootcamp, so I can directly boot into windows or Mac. I didnt install windows twice, so parallels somehow boots xp within macosx from the xp installation on the drive.

I'm interested in a FULL backup of my HDD, as well as possibly moving to an SSD. What is the best way to do this given that I have a Mac and a windows partition? I'd like to be able to restore to a new HDD and both oses, the MBR, and any alignment nessecary to be done. Can this be a one step process, or do i need to do the Mac partition via time machine, the windows one via arconis, and then they will find each other once installed on the new drive?

Say I change drive size and/or type. Say I go from 7200 rpm hdd to an ssd. How do I ensure that everything images and aligns correctly given this setup?

Thanks!

 

If you buy an SSD, many manufacturers have SSD kits that come with cables and software (on a cd) to make the transfer.

But personally, I would back up OSX with 'Carbon Copy Cloner', and Windows with 'Winclone' (google 'roaring apps', and then seach for winclone there). I would then put the new disk, put the OSX image via the OSX installer (disk utility>restore). Boot into OSX, launch Boot Camp Assistant to create the Windows partition, and then use Winclone to restore it.

This approach has a lot of steps but gives you the possibility to to set partitions to the size you want, while ensuring OSX creates the partition map and the mbr for windows.

 

your situation is a little bit tougher since you're using bootcamp.

1. you'll want to back up your mac to time machine - that will back up the mac side
2. then you'll want to back up the windows disk using a bit-for-bit copy program
3. swap the hard drives
4. reinstall / restore from time machine your mac
5. use bootcamp utility to repartition your new drive
6. use the bit-for-bit copy program to move your windows partition back.

personally, i wouldn't go for something that hard.

i'd back up my mac with time machine
i'd back up my windows vital files (my documents, my pictures, my music, etc.)
reinstall / restore from time machine
partition the hdd using bootcamp utility
install a FRESH copy of windows and all of my programs
restore my vital windows files (my documents, my pictures, my music, etc.)

 

Bit by bit copying should be avoided... It requires the partitions to be the same size and you don't get a defragemented OS like you would using file copying. I suggest winclone (like I did in my post) or even Windows own Backup utility, (would require to backup the all windows installation, reinstall the OS then restoring the backup on top of it).

 

Thanks, the one method seems to be what is decribed here:

http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-image-os-x-and-boot-camp-to-a-new-mac/

it may make better sense to reinstall, but I like the potential for keeping everything as-is.

Thanks very much!

 

Yes, it seems that winclone is a real image that provides everything as it should be, an exact image of how the disc was on the old drive.

If transferring from a spinning disk to a SSD, does this make a difference? Will the SSD know how to optimize the placement of the files onto it for max performance, or will the file system show up "optimized" like for a spinning disk and act funny in terms of performance?

My MBA is so fast, I crave that boot time on my MBP.

 

Unlike HDDs, in SSDs the place where files are store is unimportant, we are specifically talking about the HDD 'hot zone' here, a place in spinning disks where data gets faster access. SSDs work in completely different way, they have their own ways and their own software (firmware) for optimizing performance.

Anyway, on HDDs the 'hot zone' is managed by the OS. On SSDs it's the firmware itself that does performance optimization.