I’m a new user with Winclone, bootcamp, windows etc. I’m still just playing around with them, trying to learn the ins and outs. Before I invest too much time in setting up my Windows 10 bootcamp installation, of course I want to have the cloning and backing up skills down pat.
With that as my purpose, I did a volume to volume clone of my bootcamp partition yesterday. I’m using Winclone v.7…
The source volume is a bootcamp partition on a SSD in my macbookpro laptop (High Sierra system), and the target volume is an exFAT partition on an external USB drive (4TB HDD). When I formatted the partition on the external HDD, exFAT was the only choice I had (using High Sierra’s Disk Utility) that would be compatible with a Windows system. (I say this because maybe a NTFS format would be better? I don’t know.)
Here’s my problem: the target partition I named “bootcamp-bak” but after the volume to volume copy was done, I found that the partition had been re-named “BOOTCAMP” - i.e. the exact same name as the source partition on the internal SSD.
This makes for an interesting problem, because next I wanted to boot Windows 10 off of the copy on the external HDD - to see if it works - but could not figure out a way to select that volume, because the name is now identical to the boot volume on the internal drive.
Using the toolbar in Windows 10 it appears you can select your boot volume, but the dialog box that allows you to make that selection gives you no other information about the connected volumes, only the name (e.g. no information like: HDD/SSD, or internal vs. external drive, or size/capacity information).
So I have been unable to test booting from the external drive, because I cannot select the external backed up Windows volume. How can I test booting from the external HDD windows volume?
I am tempted to change the name of the external volume, but then I wonder, will that screw up the Windows installation (on that volume). Will it then not boot because the name is changed? I wonder if that’s why Winclone changed the name of the partition to “Bootcamp”…
I’m new to windows OS, so all this is a mystery to me.
Thanks for any tips!
The name of Windows volume always is BOOTCAMP for old WinClone and WINDOWS for new one. It is not a problem and it does not affect windows boot. Boot manager uses disk UUID not these names
Hi Rod, thanks for your reply.
My problem is that Winclone named the target volume BOOTCAMP. It did not name it “WINDOWS” as you suggest it should. The boot manager might well use UUID, but that is of no help to me, choosing which boot volume to use when I restart Windows. In the Windows OS, when offered a choice of boot volumes (for rebooting), I am given the choice of two volumes, each named BOOTCAMP, and given no other identifying features. So it’s a 50/50 tossup which I should choose. This is not helpful to the user;-)
Do you have any tips, how can I select the external HDD clone of Windows, so that I can boot from it?
You can rename this BOOTCAMP to any name you want. From Windows. Or mount NTFS volume R/W and rename
Hi Rod, thanks for reply. I tried this now… using Disk Management, I reformatted the external partition NTFS with the name “WINDOWS”. I booted back into MacOS, and used Winclone again to make a fresh Volume to Volume clone onto the WINDOWS partition. This clone was successful, and like before, resulted in the external partition being re-named “BOOTCAMP.”
THen I booted into Windows 10, again used Disk Management to re-name the external clone partition “WINDOWS,” which appeared to stick, because in the file explorer the partition showed with the new name “WINDOWS” and also in the bootcamp tool where you can select the startup disk. So I selected the external partition “WINDOWS” for booting.
I re-booted Windows, and it booted fine, but now I cannot tell what volume it actually booted from? I’m unsure, because File Explorer shows all the attached partitions, and I assume only the boot partition gets the tiny little Windows logo floating above the icon for HDD. And that little logo is floating over the volume named “BOOTCAMP,” not “WINDOWS.”
Am I right thinking the computer booted off of the internal BOOTCAMP and not the external WINDOWS partition? Even though in Windows I specified that the boot should be off of the external WINDOWS partition?
My problem/puzzle remains: how can I test a volume to volume clone for “bootability?”
thanks for any more tips
Boris
I should add, FYI, I’m using Winclone v.7 running under MacOS 10.13.6 High Sierra on a late 2013 MacBook Pro. The internal drive is a SSD, and the external a spinning disk HDD. The primary reason I purchased Winclone is for the promise that it can (easily) create a bootable clone of a Windows installation. So far I have seen little progress towards that goal. I’m now researching the software “WinToUSB” to see if it might work better for me. Has anyone here experience with that software?
You may give ANY name to Windows partition, Windows, BootCamp, 123456, ABCDEFG, Win_Int or Win_Ext no need to reformat or reinstall for that, just rename. Windows you use now is always disk C: the another one is disk D: or any other letter
WinClone is obviously more suitable for cloning Windows
I think WinToUSB is for Windows not for Mac
Rod_S. I am confused by your question, “Winclone is obviously more suitable for cloning Windows.” My understanding is that Winclone is suitable ONLY for cloning WIndows (on a bootcamp partition)! I don’t know that it is for cloning anything else, and I don’t think I’ve tried to clone anything else? Furthermore, I thought Winclone runs only on MacOS, for the purpose of cloning bootcamp installations of WIndows. …and that is the only reason I purchased it, and the only purpose that I have for it.
So, I don’t understand your question.
THanks for showing me a screenshot of your four partitions, with one of them named “windows/windows” (which I assume is your target partition, your clone of the bootcamp partition). Now: is there any way you can get your machine to boot off of the “Windows/Windows” partition? That’s what I’ve been unable to do.
The WinToUSB software is described as useful for making bootable clones of a bootcamp partition. It runs only in Windows, and from there makes the clone of the system on which it is running. This makes it like “SuperDuper!” for the MacOS, but I’ve never heard of an app like that for Windows. Do you use SuperDuper!? (SuperDuper! cannot clone anything a bootcamp volume).
1 where did you find about “cloning anything else” ?
We discuss cloning Windows ONLY. BootCamp partition includes Windows, not Linux or anything else
2 I have no questions. It works perfectly
3 Bootcamp-Windows is HDD, Windows-Windows is USB at my picture, I can boot both with no problems
4 there is no reason for me to try Superduper or anything else, WinClone can install a new copy of Windows and can clone existing one to another partition
as far as I understand your problem, you were able to clone Windows but both Windows have the same partition label. Just rename one of them to any other name
Rod_S thanks for your reply, and for your patience. To answer your questions:
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Your statement to me, that “WinClone is obviously more suitable for cloning Windows” suggested to me, that you thought that I was trying to use Winclone for something other than cloning a Windows installation. So I replied to try and clarify my understanding. I think we’re just having a language problem here (english/russian;-)… we are both using Winclone for the same purpose, and the same way: running Winclone in MacOS, to clone a bootcamp partition from the source internal MacOS boot drive (in my case a SSD) to a target external USB HDD formatted for Windows (format NTFS).
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and 3. Thank you for confirming that you have no trouble booting into your external HDD windows partition/volume. I am new to windows, unfamiliar with it. Can you please tell me, once I have booted in windows, how can I tell which drive/volume/partition the system booted from? Is it indicated with the little windows icon floating attached to the volume (i.e. HDD) icon? Is there any other way to determine the boot drive? I note that Windows always shows drive C: at the top - I assume the boot drive - and drive D: is my external clone of Windows. I’ve never seen drive D: at the top of the list. When you boot from your external HDD clone, does that mean you have a drive other than drive C: showing at the top of the File Explorer list? I have tried to boot into the external Windows system both from the MacOS Startup control panel (mine looks just like your screengrab above), and from within Windows 10, where I can also specify which partition to start from. Both times I have tried, it looks like the Windows system booted from the internal drive C:. Alas, I cannot disconnect my internal SSD (without disassembling my laptop), so what other ways exist to force the boot off the external drive? …or to test/confirm that that’s where the system is booting from?
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I mentioned SuperDuper! to you only to characterize my understanding of how WinToUSB works. (though I have never used WinToUSB). I asked you if you were familiar with SuperDuper! only to avoid having to explain it to you, or to explain the apparent similarity with WinToUSB. That is, they both appear to clone the very system they are running on. This is of interest, because this is not the way Winclone works. Winclone is like a “third party” that requires running on MacOS, in order to clone a completely different system that is on a 2nd connected volume, onto a 3rd partition or volume - namely the source bootcamp partition onto a target clone partition.
Does this mean, that even if Windows has booted off the external USB HDD clone, that it then refers to that external volume as C: drive?
in Windows C: is always the drive Windows boot from, next available letter (D:) is another copy of Windows, letter may vary if you have CDROM or SDCard/USB Flash Drive
sure
A: B: are floppy disks but we do not use them for 20 years
С: is Windows’s system drive
D E F … X Y Z are other drives and network shares in alphabetical order
C: is USB drive I boot from
D: is old Windows at internal HDD
right mouse button, Propertiles, I can change BOOTCAMP label to anything
E: is USB stick and F: is DVD ROM
Mac’s HFS disk is invisible from Windows
Rod_S, thanks very much for your latest reply, that clarifies things a lot for me! I did not know that Windows shifts around the letter designation from one piece of hardware to another, based on where the boot system is. I thought that C: was always the internal drive. Now I know better! Sorry for the confusion caused by my ignorance. Thanks also for the tips about renaming the external Windows partition/volume!
No! С: is the drive Windows started from
letter is not related to properties of drive itself, (internal or external), letter is assigned by Windows
I understand, thank you for clarifying it absolutely!
OK
does it work now the way you wanted?