Wanting to clone entire drive (Mac and Windows)

F

firehawk

Veteran
I don't know if this is possible but here goes:

I need to clone my entire main Hard Drive onto another new drive so it can be removed from the system and the clone put in it's place and work just like the original. Now that I have all the software installed and activated I need to have a quick way to get back to work for when my main drive fails in the future without spending so many hours going through this again.

Here's the problem:

My system is a MacPro and when it starts I can either boot to OSX 10.7 Lion or Windows 7 Pro 64 bit (using bootcamp). I mostly use it in Windows mode. So I need to clone a drive that has windows and MacOSX on it.

I have Acronis Tru Image backup 2013 and also the built-in backup programs in windows and macOS but I don't know if any of it can do what I need to do.

Lastly, will my software and Operating system activations all fail if the main drive is replaced but the rest of the machine stays the same? I have Adobe CS5, 3ds Max, Final Cut Studio (3) and a ton of plugins from GenArts, Boris FX and more, all of which are hassles to re-install and activate.

Thank you for any help with this. I just don't know.
 
You can use an app called Carbon Copy Cloner, from http://www.bombich.com (should have a trial period). it does what it says: a carbon copy of a disk to another disk. Chose the source hd, the target hd, and it copies everything, including hidden files. When you're done, go to your System Preferences, and choose the drive that was the target as Startup drive, and restart or reboot your system. You can then be sure that everything works. If you use an external drive, you may want to put it aside in case something goes bad. From time to time, you may also plug it in, and use something like ChronoSync (http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html) to keep your two drives synchronized - new soft installed, documents, files, whatever you added to your boot disk since you cloned it.

L.
 
"Marcium Reflect" has a great free version for PC.
I switched over to it from "Acronis True Image" which was a paid version and I'm much happier with Macrium Reflect free.
Macrium is also much faster.
 
Thank you, everyone.

The fact that it's got windows and Mac OS partitions seems to complicate this. I've been reading online a while trying to figure out what to do.

So, you think I can clone the drive, then take out the original and put my clone in it's place and it all will work just like nothing happened? I am worried about the drive replacement breaking software and/or operating system license activations and having to go through all that time and hassle again especially.

My plan is to use another Seagate 1TB drive like the original, but copy it using an external enclosure. Once the clone is made, then open up the computer and replace the drive with the clone and continue working...I hope

---EDIT
Wow! TheReverend, I've been reading about that drive dock copier. It looks to be ideal. http://www.amazon.com/Cavalry-Retri...icator/dp/B003ZDLATE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
 
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If you're comfortable stepping outside the OSX/Win world, I could recommend "partclone" to clone partitions of all formats (including Win/OSX). Partclone is free (libre+beer) software that can run off a live DVD. It requires, perhaps, more technical chops than other stuff, but works quite nicely. More info here:

http://partclone.org/

HTH.
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WV5DLA/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ended up buying this. Bought a new drive of the same capacity and after copying stuck it in the Mac Pro and it works just like the original! Even the license activations. The only giveaway that something had changed was a brief driver update popped up at the bottom of the screen for the new drive (seagate) whereas the original drive was a western digital black.
A big thanks to everyone for helping me!
 
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