Our Verdict
OS X ’s Boot Camp lets bring up your Mac into Windows , temporarily call on it into a Windows PC . It ’s a bang-up feature , but if you value your Windows data — or if you require to be able to fix your Boot Camp partition to another Mac or to a raw hard drive — you should back up your Windows partition just as you back up your O X data . In my experience , many Boot Camp drug user do n’t .
Part of the reason , I ’m certain , is that even the best Mac backup software — including OS X ’s own Time Machine — can’t decently back up a Boot Camp partitioning . And even standout Mac - clone utilities such as SuperDuper and Carbon Copy Cloner are ineffective to make knockoff of your Boot Camp partition for migrate or restoring your Windows install .
Winclone 4.1 , on the other hand , can do all these things . ( Ireviewed Winclone 1.6 back in 2007 , and it ’s been updated many times since then . ) This utility can create a disk icon of your Mac ’s Boot Camp partitioning , take in it light to back up that partition , restore it from a stand-in , or transfer it to another Mac . you could even apply Winclone 4 toresize an be Boot Camp sectionalisation .
To clone your Boot Camp partition , you just choose it in Winclone ’s Sources list , get across the large Save Image ikon in the Destinations pane to the right wing , and then click the Save Image release . If you plan on restoring to a Boot Camp segmentation that ’s diminished than your current partitioning , the Shrink Windows ( NTFS ) Filesystem choice lets you first compress your current Boot Camp installation . ( For special information security system , the developer recommendsrunning CHKDSK from within Windowsbefore cloning . Similarly , if you ’re transmigrate Windows installing between computers , you should practice Windows ’s SysPrep utility before cloning . ) select a emplacement for the saved image , and Winclone make an OS X phonograph record image containing a perfect clone of your Boot Camp sectionalisation .
regenerate that image is just as well-situated . You just choose the image in Winclone ’s Sources list , choose your ( presumably empty ) Boot Camp partition in the Destinations loony toons , and get through Restore To Volume .
New in 4
The latest version of Winclone adds a issue of useful new feature . For example , you could now use Winclone to clone an factual Windows PC to a disk picture for afterward restoring , or migrate an existent Windows PC instantly to a Boot Camp partition on your Mac . Or if you want to migrate an existing Boot Camp segmentation to another Mac , you’re able to skip the disk - picture step by placing the source Mac in Target Disk Mode , connect it ( via FireWire or Thunderbolt ) to the aim Mac , and transfer the Boot Camp partition between them . you could even do the same with a real Windows personal computer , though this requires that you connect the PC ’s difficult driveway directly to your Mac .
you may also now reinstate a Boot Camp partitioning over a local internet by start the Share Winclone Images On internet option in Winclone , and then operate Winclone on both the generator and destination machines . The source Mac ’s Boot Camp partition will appear in the terminus Mac ’s Source list . The source Mac will also portion out any dead ringer images you ’ve created .
( Note that you must have a Boot Camp sectionalization on the destination Mac for any of these procedures . you’re able to do this using Apple ’s Boot Camp Assistant , or you canfollow the developer ’s instructionsfor manually create a Boot Camp partition . )
As our GemFest reviews are brief , I ’ve only summarized the capabilities of Winclone 4 . Suffice it to say that if you use Boot Camp frequently , or on multiple Macs , Winclone should be in your tooklit . It ’s well-situated to employ , it works well , and the developer providesexcellent how - to corroboration .
( A $ 100 Pro edition of Winclone 4 , aimed at arrangement administrators and multi - computer organizations , supports an unlimited number of computing equipment and — my favorite pro - even feature — lets youcreate ego - contain Boot Camp installersfor chop-chop reinstate a Boot Camp double to one or more mack . )
