Clone MacOS, Bootcamp, keep working and re-clone

Hi @all,

I have the following situation, to which I’ve spent the best part of a working day looking for a (as near as possible) foolproof solution:

I have a 2016 MBP running High Sierra and Windows 10. The High Sierra partition is an APFS container. Because I have to send the computer in for repairs, I want to clone both systems to an external drive from which I can boot either and keep working (I’ll get a loaner computer in the meantime), wipe the internal drive before sending it in for repairs and basically re-clone when my computer comes back from repair. I know WinClone can take care of the BootCamp partition, but I’d like to know what other things I need to have in place/take care of to guarantee working Mac and Win systems both from the external drive and the internal drive (after the computer comes back from repair). I.e. what tools do you recommend and in which order should the individual steps of the process be performed. Clone MacOS first (and with which tool, CCCloner?), then the BootCamp partition? Format the spare drive before, in which way, yes or no? Is there a problem if the external disk is not an SSD, while the internal one is, and if so, how to mitigate this problem?

I did this once before with Paragon’s HDM which worked fine, but that was before I updated to HighSierra and APFS, HDM can’t deal with APFS partitions, so unfortunately that’s no longer an option.

I’d be very glad if anybody (preferably somebody who did the same thing before :wink: ) could outline the process in detail, although it’s outside of what WinClone covers.

Best regards,
Andreas