[whatnow]

I just posted a full write up of my experience at MacWindows.com User forum • View topic - Migrate PC Windows XP install to Mac BootCamp

But wanted to see if others have anything to add to the process.

The Goal: I want to migrate my existing install of Windows XP from an old desktop to a BootCamp partition on a new MacBook

The Short Version:
What ended up (mostly) working so far is the following:
1. Create a new BootCamp partition on the MacBook and quit at the point it asks to install Windows.
2. Boot the MacBook into FireWire Target Disk mode and attach it to the Desktop PC via FW cable to a FW PCI card. The BootCamp Partition appears as a mounted drive on the PC. (Note: not sure if removing drive from Mac and attaching it to PC via USB enclosure would also work).
3. Run XXCLONE (freeware) to create a copy of the booted C Drive on the PC to the BootCamp disk that mounted on the PC. I used the 'make target bootable' option in XXCLONE before running, not sure if that is necessary or not.
4. After clone completes, boot into the new BootCamp partition and install the BootCamp Windows drivers from a 10.6 Snow Leopard CD.

[Cold Warrior]

The app you used (xxclone) says it's the 'new' way to clone Windows, but then says it only works for Win x86 and not even on Windows 7. I'd look for a more current cloning app.

I've never tried to clone from PC to BC like you've done. It's interesting. Did you sysprep the PC before cloning?

[whatnow]

Cold-

XXCLONE is indeed several years old, and may not be getting updated anymore. However, it has always worked very well for me for my previous needs. Namely: Making a bootable clone of WinXP from one internal IDE drive on a desktop to a second/backup IDE hardrive on the same desktop. I'd love to hear if a more current cloning app gets the job done.

As for sysprep, no I did not go through that process. First, I didn't want to 'strip' my set-up desktop of its settings, and second, I assumed the BootCamp driver install process would take care of most of my hardware specific transfer problems. However, if I encounter weirdness in BC (my full post notes WiFi is still offline) I may go back and run Sysprep on the backup and try again. (Another issue, as I also noted in my full post, was using XXCLONE to clone the backup 'D' drive to BC initially yielded an error about a missing .dll file on reboot, so went back and cloned the active C drive instead. And as I understand it you can't Boot up from a Sysprepped drive without re-installing the stuff Sysprep strips out).

[Cold Warrior]

Well I don't know about booting Windows on a Mac after a sysprep, but it works on Windows PCs just fine without reinstalling anything. Sysprep removes machine-specific information/identifiers and also resets Windows to use generic drivers on bootup and then auto-identify the detected hardware for any specific drivers also during first bootup.

[whatnow]

Yeah, I assume a sysprepped image would work fine (if not better) when installed on a Mac BC partition, but that wasn't my concern. To clarify: In my experiment I first tried cloning the 'D' drive of a WinPC (using XXCLONE) to a BC partition, and when I booted into BC, got an error about a missing .dll file. I THEN cloned the active 'C' drive to BC and BC booted OK.

[Note, I've never done mass deployments of a PC image, so have never used sysprep] But my understanding is that once you 'sysprep' a drive you shut it down and use it to clone from (i.e., it is not the boot drive during cloning). So, for some reason XXCLONE appears to like cloning the active 'C' drive and no another inactive drive. And again, my limited understanding is once you boot from a drive that has been sysprepped, that booting reinstalls all the machine specific stuff sysprep stripped out in the first place.

So maybe if I had different cloning software that cloned the non-active boot drive (a sysprepped 'D' drive) I'd be fine, just not sure what application that would be?