Windows boot failure after Winclone 9 restore

Hi,
I recently purchased Winclone 9. Created a Winclone Image on the desktop and carried out a Time Machine backup prior to taking my Macbook Pro into an Apple Store for maintenance (new battery). Failed to boot Windows in Bootcamp after receiving computer back, though booting in Apple mode without issue. Tried restore of Bootcamp partition using Winclone 9. Still failed to boot in Windows. Erased Bootcamp partition using the Apple MacBook Disk Utility and then used Bootcamp to restore to one complete partition - then used it to create a 75Gb Bootcamp NTFS partition (same size as original Windows partition). Carried out another restore operation using Winclone 9. Still unable to boot Windows via Bootcamp. Tried injecting drivers using Winclone 9 by selecting WinPEDriver. Still not able to boot Windows. Black screen. Would appreciate some advice. It looked so easy on the official Winclone 9 video. I had also created an image using Windows 10. I may have to resort to that if I cannot get Winclone to work. Advice much appreciated!
P.S. I am running the latest version of the latest macOS (macOS Big Sur version 11.1) and Windows 10 on a small 75Gb Bootcamp partition. My computer is a pre T2, MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), 1TB SSD, 2.8 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel Iris 1536 MB.

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When booting into windows, what error message is shown?

tim

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I don’t get anything on the screen at all apart from a couple of different shades of black when trying to boot from Winclone restored Bootcamp.

Winclone presented a warning before I restored saying “The image you are trying to restore recommends a minimum volume size of 75.3Gb, but you are trying to restore to a volume that has a size of 76.7 Gb. Continue?”

I tried continuing and also tried with a Bootcamp partition of 80Gb instead of 75Gb (as it originally was). I changed the partition size using Bootcamp. For both partition sizes I tried with and without injecting the drivers in “WinPEDriver”. Result was the same. Bootcamp is currently showing 55.63Gb of 80Gb used after Winclone Bootcam restore and injection of drivers. As far as I understand injection of drivers should not be necessary as I am restoring to the same computer? There was no Winclone size warning with the 80Gb partition size.

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I wonder if expanding the filesystem will resolve the issue. Try selecting “Expand NTFS Filesystem” from the Tools menu and follow the instructions.

tim

The “Expand NTFS Filesystem” option is not available in my Winclone 9 Tools menu.

I read on the twocanoes knowledge base that “Starting with Winclone 7, the options to shrink or expand a Boot Camp partition only appear when block-based imaging has been selected” Could this be why I don’t have this option?

I am fairly certain I did not select any checkbox to make anything bootable when I created the Winclone image. Not sure if I should have done. I just copied what I saw on your video without really understanding what was happening.

Hoping that there is a way forward. I can see all the Windows folders in Bootcamp. I assume something to do with boot up is missing from somewhere? I have a Windows Recovery Disc which I made when I created the Winclone image. I also have a WinInstall USB created using Bootcamp. I have more boot options when I plug either of those in, but Windows still does not boot whichever option I choose. Update; when I had both the Recovery Disc in and the WinInstall USB in I was able to start Windows Set Up in EFI. That though does not recover my original Windows set up.

Size issues are usually related to block-based imaging, so I assumed that is what you were using. Did the restore complete without any errors? If so, then you are probably fine to ignore the warning. Windows does need some space for swap files and hibernation but I am not sure that would cause boot issues.

You can try changing between EFI and Legacy booting:

Try switching between legacy and EFI:

tim

Thanks! Now getting somewhere. I first activated EFI mode. Windows boots up and all looking OK apart from when attempting to switch between MacOs & Windows after selecting restart in MacOs and holding option key down till options appear. This results in Windows starting to boot up (4 blue windows and rotating white dots on screen) and then stops and MacOs boots up instead. All other changes working correctly (from shut down state to booting into Windows or Mac works, shutting down MacOs or Windows works ok, switching from Windows to MacOs works ok). Problem now is only when switching from MacOs to Windows. Subsequently tried Legacy boot after disabling MacOs System Integrity Protection as per instructions - appeared to not work as well. Unlike when enabling EFI there is no feedback in Winclone to tell me that Legacy boot enabling has succeeded so I just gave it 20 minutes and hoped it had done so in that time. Just the one issue remaining now.
My Macbook Pro is late 2013 and I am using very latest versions of op system software both for Mac and for Windows 10.

so how do you get it to boot into Windows initially if you can’t use the option boot selector? System Preferences?

tim

I use the option boot selector every time to get into Windows. It works when booting up from cold. It doesn’t work if I have MacOs running and select restart in MacOs and then hold down the option key until the Mac/Windows boot options appear. In this case after selecting the Windows option the machine starts to boot in Windows (blue windows and rotating white dots on screen) and then for a split second the screen goes black and then the machine boots up in MacOs.
Sorry I forgot to answer a question in your previous message. There were no errors on, during or after Winclone restore. I have left the Bootcamp partition set at 80Gb so don’t even get a size warning.

Further to the above, after trying restart from MacOs quite a few times and pressing the option key, it seems that often after Windows starts booting up it gets as far as where the picture screen appears (where you normally put the password to log into Windows), but this is only present for a fraction of a second before the screen goes black for another fraction of a second then Windows starts a second boot up attempt (blue windows and rotating white dots) and then within a couple of seconds the screen again goes black for a fraction of a second before the computer boots up in MacOs.

Can you try clearing the NVRAM and see if that resolves the issue? I am at a loss since I have not seen this issue and it is very strange.

tim

Following your advice I have tried clearing the NVRAM. I used the Apple instructions at Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac - Apple Support
I tried holding alt, cmd, P & R till after the second start up sound and also tried another time holding for 20 seconds.
Result was that very occasionally my Macbook Pro would boot into Windows after a MacOs restart, but mostly it did the same as before and started booting in Windows before switching over and booting into MacOs.
Very occasionally about the same time as I would expect to get the MacOs/Windows option screen I would get an error screen with blue background and white text. Title of the screen was:
“Recovery” and text was “Your PC couldn’t turn off properly. The operating system on your PC failed to turn off properly and needs to be repaired. Error Code: 0xc0000001 You’ll need to use recovery tools. If you don’t have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your administrator or PC/Device manufacturer. Press Enter to try again / Press F1 to enter Recovery Environment / Press F8 for Startup settings”
After this I also tried repeating a Winclone recovery (without first erasing the Bootcamp partition, immediately followed by Winclone “Make EFI bootable” immediately followed by NVRAM reset. This did not change anything.
The icon for Windows on the boot up option page is the one for Bootcamp Assistant (a diamond in the background with two hard drives in the foreground). I assume this is correct. I can’t remember what it was previously.
Do you have any other ideas I could try or would you suggest that I follow up further with either Apple or Microsoft and if so which?

What happens when you select Windows from the System Preference startup disk pane? does it give an error?

tim

I have never used this method before. When I select Windows from the System Preference startup disk pane the computer boots into Windows succesfully every time. I have tried it half a dozen times.
It does however seem to do it in a manner which may not be 100% correct. There is the start sound and the blue windows and rotating white dots, then the full screen picture appears. Then the full screen picture disappears, the start sound again, the blue windows and rotating white dots again before the full screen picture appears for the second and final time. It’s almost as if it is booting twice in a row. I have never before paid so much attention to this process so I am not sure what is normal, but this “double sequence” is not what I would have expected.
When starting Windows from a shut down computer it also works every time and I get one start up sound before the disk option screen and one after it, but visually there is only one sequence of events not two.

This does seem strange. I would look in the Windows logs / Event Viewer for any clues why windows is doing a double boot.

tim