Sorry for taking a while to get back, but that clears up the issues as far as the size of files but still does not explain why the restored clone regardless of the method of cloning will not boot. I could understand if where there could be an issue moving from two different machines and there would be driver issues, but this is restoring to the machine the clone was made on.
It is possible that multiple boot camp partitions could be causing the issue, and I understand why you would be hesitant to remove the original prior to testing the clone. You can disconnect the connector to the original and see if it works.
tim
So what your are saying is in order to determine if your software is creating a properly
working clone, is to completely disassemble my Mini, remove a connector, and then
completely reassemble my Mini?
There has to be smoother solution!
We have seen a similar issue with MacBook Pros where people replace the optical drive with an SSD, and Windows won’t boot off of it. Switching to the primary bay resolves the issue.
tim
Tried a variety of methods to no avail and as complete teardown and re-assembly was not an
option, as a last resort, I did the following which still resulted in failure:
- Created a Winclone7 image of the Windows install on the HDD in my Mini.
- Erased and reformatted the HDD as a standard macOS GUID and HFS+.
- Cleared the EFI on the SSD of any remaining “Microsoft” folders leaving only the
Apple one in EFI. - Did an option reboot to verify that only the macOS was present as a boot option.
- Created a second partition on the SSD (where macOS resides) via the method that
is described on your site. - Restored the Winclone7 image to the new partition.
- Forced “legacy boot”, and received the same old insert floppy message.
- Forced “EFI Boot” and got black screen.
- Went back and removed the Windows partition and verify all vestiges of any Windows
presence was removed. - Tried running Bootcamp to the point after the partitioning was done and the Windows
installer started and ran just to the point to verify partition was created and quite the
installer. - Then tried to restore the clone with same old results.
This happened only once, but one attempt at booting after forcing EFI, which isn’t well
supported for Windows in a 2011 Mini it did get to a “blue screen” with a Windows
error code 0xC0000001, for what ever that is worth as Googling it seems to be
just about any kind of problem.
So, no joy in Mudville and looking for ideas.
Switching to the primary bay is not a solution in my case and I’m still fighting with WinClone to get my partition restored. It’s incredibly frustrating and I’m very close to giving up and just installing Windows 7 and everything else from scratch using Boot Camp Assistant.
I am running one last test, however. I have disconnected the drive in the optical bay completely and I have wiped my SSD in the primary bay and installed Sierra instead of High Sierra so that my SSD is HFS+ instead of APFS. I then created the MSDOS partition on this SSD and am testing a volume to volume restore. Just want to rule out any High Sierra/APFS weirdness.
I’ll report back, but I’m not very hopeful at this point.
Confirmed that restoring using WinClone in Sierra and having only one SSD in the primary bay that’s formatted HFS+ does not help. Exact same symptoms.
Disappointing.
Did you try installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp assistant to verify that it indeed will be bootable with that SSD in that slot? That might help to figure out what is going on.
tim
I was able to successfully install and boot from a fresh copy of Win 7 Pro 64-bit on this computer. I have also verified that Windows boots from either the primary bay or the optical drive bay.
FWIW, I found a Windows based app that could clone my HDD based Windows
to a Thunderbolt drive and it could be used to restore that clone back. I used it
for my previous experiment when I attempted to Winclone my Windows HDD
and wiped it to see if that made a difference, which as you saw in my previous
post made no difference.
Today, I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my macOS so I could completely
wipe the SSD (CCC clones of macOS always boot). Rebooted to Windows on
the HDD and used DiskPart to wipe the SSD and set it to MBR. I then used the
Windows cloning app and cloned the HDD to the SSD.
Well guess what? I ended up with two fully functional Windows installs, one booting
from SSD and one from HDD.
BTW, tried booting from my macOS clone and tried doing a Winclone clone from the
HDD to the SSD and it didn’t work.
So, one or all of the following can be an issue:
- Winclone7 has serious issues dealing with systems with multiple drives
with multiple Windows installs. - The Apple boot loader, at least in 2011 Macs, can’t have multiple Windows installs
if one is on a drive with a macOS partition. - In creating complete Windows drive clones, Winclone is missing some things that
Windows needs to boot. Found this out when I tried to use Winclone to create an
external EFI drive to try and boot on my iMac and would not boot, but the one I
would create from within Windows booted perfectly on my iMac.
I have however finally accomplished what I wanted and that was to get Windows on the SSD.
I may or may not clone my macOS to the HDD in my Mini as High Sierra is the end of the line
it.
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So did you wipe the SSD twice? Didn’t;t the 2nd wipe remove the MacOS Clone?
I may not be understanding what you mean. I have a dual boot MacBook Pro 2013 with no WIN7 restore disks so I have to clone the WIN7 to save it. [The University didn’t provide those in the employee sale.]