Windows. Backups?

[The Boosh!]

Hello!

I've made a partition too small on my mac for windows. I only gave it 20gb but the programme i'm installing is absolutely massive so I need more space for the windows partition.

It looks like i need to format the disk and change the size of it.

Is there any programme that I can use to effectively take a 'picture' of windows how it is (so will remember all my programmes/settings etc etc), put it on a hard drive, reformatt with a bigger partition, then bang on my stuff exactly how it was before?

I really dont want to have to go through the effort of installing:
Windows
Service pack 3
Office 2010
FF
Anti virus
Other programmes

I'd also have to f**k about with product keys.

Help

 

[bmit]

Symantec ghost, acronis true image, or the bsckup in windows if its 7 / maybe vista

 

[adamlstr]

IIRC, disk utility from within OSX can resize the partition in tact.

 

[C.J]

I've not got a mac, but in windows you can simply resize the partition.

Have you checked for this?

 

[Adam.]

IIRC, disk utility from within OSX can resize the partition in tact.

This.

Open diskutility, click the actual hard drive on the left hand side, then right click and select partition. Then just drag the slider and BOOM.

 

[The Boosh!]

This.

Open diskutility, click the actual hard drive on the left hand side, then right click and select partition. Then just drag the slider and BOOM.

Nope - Won't work with bootcamp for some reason. I've already gone into disk utility and tried it, but it won't let me drag the partition to change the side. It also gives me a message saying you can't do it with bootcamp lol

 

[Adam.]

Weak.

Some good suggestions here : http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?561622

Although by the time you've pissed about with that, you'd probably be as well just starting again.

 

[The Boosh!]

Does anyone know what will happen with the product key etc? I don't want it to stop working and i'm not sure how many times it's been used.

 

[Adam.]

If its the same 'hardware' it should be fine. If its a legit key then ring the activation line and type the number in (its automated) and it will give you the code to activate.

I've got spare keys lying about if you really need one but they will require the oem media.

 

[ivegota16v]

clonezilla... will do all you want and more, never tried it with bootcamp but should in theory still work

 

[Munson]

Just take an image of the partition with Disk Utility. This is what I have recently done.

Having said that, it didn't work lol. Well it did. Kinda. I have restored all my Windows shizznit, but I'm struggling to make the partition bootable again. Apparently it's easy with some Terminal commands but I'm having no luck. Lots of Googling reveals the same generic (copy & paste) posts about Terminal commands, but they don't work for me. Probably I'm a bit r****d

 

[Munson]

Meh. I managed to make the partition bootable again but Windows stalls with a blinking cursor (also common apparently). I'm trying Winclone now, Seems to be working fine but it'll probably kill my Mac...

 

[The Boosh!]

Are you trying to do what i'm trying to do?

If so let me know if you work it out

 

[Munson]

I was trying to move my Windows install from my 13" to my 17" and also increase the partition size at the same time (I'm now pushin 40GB). So potentially more troublesome owing to the different hardware that Windows would have to deal with.

Winclone has just done the job perfectly. Windows was bootable from the off. It struggled a bit at first with the hardware, but after a couple of restarts it's running perfectly on the 17". So essentially, WC took my Bootcamp from a 13" MBP and installed it on a 17" MBP with little or no hassle. Highly recommended dude. All I had to do was use Bootcamp assistant to create the Windows partition on the 17", and WC did the rest. Considering the amount of problems documented (and experienced by me) in such a scenario, I'm serial impressed with how WC worked...and it's free!