Installing New C Drive HDD in Mac Pro Using Bootcamp with Win7 Installed

The clone process does not require the same size however for a more successful attempt and without specialized software it would be in your best interest to clone it to the same size or bigger. I am not super familiar with the MR software you are using, but in most cases the software will partition what you have currently on a clone. After that the remaining disk space if any will typically be allocated and available to partition for another one.

Thanks James!  I have had very good luck using MR for years, many times, and have run clone backups as well, but never installed them.

Never had a need to. But I think I will go with a new 500G WD Black... about $60 and I have several other drives for Backup.

BTW, I am thinking about doing a new install of Win7 and migrating over my applications, updates, files and drivers.

Is there a simple way of doing it these days? I run a non-destructive reinstall of Win7 every year but never quite sure if it's as good as a full clean reinstall.

On the other hand, having to reinstall 190 apps and Win7 updates, 107 drivers and and thousands of files is a bit daunting!

You are welcome. The Western Digital Black series is good and typically reliable, I usually stay in the WD color'd series with client PCs depending on what I am working on.

The reinstall process in Windows 7 is sadly just as you listed. The problem with clean install versus the clone is that the clone copies it just as it is, the files you see and more importantly the ones you dont! This means Registry keys, Appdata, cache's etc. So if there are remnants of files and folders that are harmful or obstructive to the function of the system the only true way to get the system as clean and performing well as possible is to clean install them as you suspected.

Windows 10 however offers this "Reset this PC" function which allows this to be much much easier. You can reinstall Windows but keep the data files and drivers without having to reinstall them. Typically the only thing you have to reinstall is the actual apps themselves. But this is far less cumbersome to install apps versus all of the data, drivers and then apps. Its kind of the limitation of the software you have.

TKU again! I am not at all sure my early 2008 Mac Pro tower 3,1 will install Win10.

I tried early on in 2015 and got 2/3 way thru before it crapped out.

Not sure if MS has made any improvements that would resolve the issue in the last 2 years.

The built in dd command would work too.  It's best to boot from Single user mode so that OS files aren't changing as you run it.  The internal boot disk is usually disk0.  The external disk will be mounted as a another disk number, usually disk2 or disk3 and you can determine that with the diskutil command.  These are built in command line utilities that are free.

diskutil list
dd if=/dev/disk0 of=/dev/disk3

Tks Nobus... I've done both a Clone and Image of the CDrive (actually Cloned the CDrive and another partition on same disk). But I've read that if your replacing an HDD containing the CDrive, you must clone the entire HDD before restoring it to the new HDD, of the same size. I would much prefer to just dump an Image of my CDrive on the new HDD and forget about it.

As for a n SSD I'd be happy to install one if I could. But my early 2008 Mac Pro (tower) won't accept them.. so I am told. Only 3.5/2.5 HDDs.

BTW< as I understand it Macrium Reflect is owned by Paragon, although the software in completely different.

Tks Serialband but the Command Line utilities are generally above my paygrade... never heard of dd.

if you use imaging from paragon, i select the whole disk - with ALL partitions in one go - and make the image
then i can restore that to disk drives of the same size, and also smaller and bigger sizes smaller - only if the image size allows it to store on the smaller sized drive

you can install an SSD - see :  https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/mac-pro/2008

pick your choice - an SSD is the only investment in pc world that's worth it's money ! !

TKS Nobus... actually just got off the phone with OWC. You're right! It will take an SSD.

But also thinking about selling my Mac and to a 2010 5,1. No problem with moving to Win10.

Is there nothing an Image misses that a Clone would pick up.

Not sure I understand why people would clone vs image.

Thanks Nobus... ready to buy an SSD.

My current Win7 Bootcamp partition is 250Gs (70% used) sitting on a 500G 2 partition HDD.

My Mac OS HDD is on a totally separate HDD.

Can I migrate an Image of my BootCamp Win7 partition to a new 250G SSD on a USB port connection and then move it to the 1# internal slot.

Or, do I need to go internal, say in slot #2, with the empty SSD drive using an OWC sled and copy over the Win7 Image... then switch the drives?

Thanks

Thanks Nobus. I do have a powered USB hub and USB 3.  As you know, I use Macrium Reflect (a sub of Paragon) for backup operations. My real question is will an Image backup of my Win7 Boot Camp partition migrated to the SSD get the job done, Should I also do a Clone? And in both cases, do I need an Image or Clone of the entire HDD which includes my Win7 partition and 2nd partition?

>>   And in both cases, do I need an Image or Clone of the entire HDD which includes my Win7 partition and 2nd partition?   <<   YES
that's ALL you need

When I begin this process in a few weeks can I pay you a fee to lend some assistance by email or phone? If so, how does that work?

What about the SSD... can I go with the 250G and migrate just my Win7 Boot Camp partition or should I go for a 500G and migrate the entire drive, both partitions?

And what about my Mac OS drive... it there anything in there that needs to be captured?

it would cost - i'm in Europe
i told you : just select the WHOLE DRIVE - that's it -no problems
and if you have problems or questions then - just ask

Yes... I noticed... Belgium!

Sounds good.. and I appreciate the help! But emails are cheap! Just a matter of time spent.

Anyway, I'll buy a 500G SSD and first try to migrate via a USB connection. Then flip the drives.

That should work. If not, I can always flip back to square one and try something else. Later

yes you may contact me also by email, but it will be the same on here for answering your Q's

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