How to Clone a Bootcamp Partition

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You can clone a Bootcamp partition on your Mac.
Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images

If you use Apple's Bootcamp program to run WIndows on your Mac computer, a separate partition on your main hard drive is devoted to the Windows operating system and all of your PC files. In order to back up this entire partition or transfer it to another computer to set up Bootcamp, you will need to create a clone image of it. The easiest way to clone a Bootcamp partition is by using the Disk Utility application on your Mac.

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Step 1

Boot up your computer to the Mac OS X side and log in to your user account.

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Step 2

Open a new Finder window by clicking on the icon in the Dock.

Step 3

Go to the "Applications" section of the Mac hard drive.

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Step 4

Open the "Utilities" folder and double-click on the "Disk Utility" icon.

Step 5

Select your Bootcamp partition from the list of drives and partitions on the left side of the window. Make sure you are highlighting the actual partition and not the main hard drive on which the partition exists.

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Step 6

Click on the "New Image" button at the top of the Disk Utility window.

Step 7

Enter a name for the clone image and then choose where to save the file. Since the clone file will probably be rather large, it may be wise to save it on an external hard drive.

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Step 8

Choose "Compressed" from the "Image Format" drop-down menu and hit the "Save" button to begin cloning the partition. Depending on how much data is on the Bootcamp partition, the cloning process could take up to two hours to finish.

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