Boot Camp Migration Overview

Migrating Windows from Boot Camp or a real PC requires preparation before the migration begins. Device drivers installed on the source computer will not match the hardware on the destination Mac, except in cases where the source and destination computers are the same model and version. Steps must be taken to remove the device drivers from the source operating system, then create the Winclone image.

Instructions for creating a Boot Camp partition can be found in the support document “Create a Boot Camp Partition“.

For migrating from an existing Boot Camp partition to a different Mac, please see the support document “Migrating a Boot Camp Partition“.

For migrating from a real PC to Boot Camp, please see the support document “Migrating a Real PC to Boot Camp“.

Instructions for installing device drivers on the destination Boot Camp partition, please see the support document “Install Boot Camp Drivers“.

When migrating Boot Camp from one computer to another, there are some considerations to keep in mind:

The key to a successful migration is using Sysprep, a built-in Windows utility, to generalize the operating system by removing hardware-specific device drivers on the source Windows installation. This process applies whether migrating Boot Camp or a real PC to a Mac.

Instructions for using Sysprep to generalize the source Windows operating system can be found in the support document “Migrating a Boot Camp Partition” and “Migrating a Real PC to Boot Camp“.

If Sysprep fails to complete, there are several possible causes:

– Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service may interfere with Sysprep. The solution is to stop or disable Windows Media Player Network Sharing Services in Services.

– Sysprep may fail with a a “fatal error” message if the Windows system has run Sysprep multiple times previously.

– As a precaution, disable anti-virus, virtualization software or imaging tools running in Windows prior to running Sysprep.

Once Sysprep completes and the Boot Camp partition shuts down, restart into OS X, launch Winclone and select the Boot Camp partition in the Sources column. Select the Winclone image icon in the Destinations window, then proceed by clicking the “Save Image…” button.

Once the Winclone image has been created, it can be copied to backup storage, shared on the network as an image source in Winclone or restored locally to Boot Camp. Please see the Migration Scenarios section for detailed descriptions.

At first launch of Boot Camp following a restore process, Windows will not have device drivers that allow it to communicate with the Mac hardware until installing Boot Camp drivers. Use Boot Camp Assistant to extract the drivers to external USB storage or burn to CD/DVD. Please see support document “Install Boot Camp Drivers” for more details.