Troubleshooting Windows Booting after Winclone image restore
When restoring a Winclone image, Windows may fail to boot correctly. To troubleshooting these, try these troubleshooting tips:
“this is not a bootable disk, please insert a bootable floppy and press any key” (or other DOS type message displayed on a black screen)
black screen with flashing cursor
If you see these messages, it means that Windows is booting in “legacy” mode. Winclone will set Windows to boot in legacy mode if either of the following is true:
- Windows 7 or earlier
- Mac hardware does not support EFI booting
If you have Windows 8 or later and have a Mac that supports EFI booting, you can try the following steps: (see https://support.twocanoes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003286483 to determine what model you have)
1. Reset the PRAM:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
2. Manually switch between legacy and EFI booting:
https://support.twocanoes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002318066-Switch-between-Legacy-and-EFI-Mode
Black screen with no flashing cursor
Error message relating to BCD
A black screen with no cursor or an error regarding BCD usually relates to EFI booting. The BCD is located on a special partition, called the EFI partition. If you have recently reformatted your disk, verify that it is GPT formatted by going to the Apple Menu and selecting “About this Mac”. Click System Report and look under storage. Select the Windows partition and verify the Partition Map Type is GPT. If not, reformat the disk in Disk Utility and make sure the partition type is set to GUID / GPT.
Blue Screen
Start booting then restart
These issues are usually driver related. If you restored the Winclone image on a different Mac (or have changed the hardware since creating the image), Windows may fail to boot due to drive related issues. It is recommended that you run sysprep on the original hardware prior to creating the Winclone image. Prior to running sysprep on the original Windows installation, create a Winclone image of the Windows installation in case the sysprep operation fails and leaves the Windows installation in an unknown / unbootable state. Also, back up any important files prior to running sysprep by manually dragging them to an external drive.
To run sysprep, follow the instructions here:
If you did not run sysprep prior to changing hardware, you can restore the Winclone image to the original hardware, verify that it boots, then follow the procedure for sysprep.