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herbsman · 07:39 PM

Is it possible to use the Mac OS X disk utility app to image NTFS hard drives? And then cloning it to a destination HD that is larger than the original?

I have a 250 gb HD with XP that I would like to deploy to fresh 500 gb HDs and was wondering what the best tool for this was? Ideally I would like to use the Mac OS X disk utility since it's right on the Mac and it's pretty simple to use.

But I have so far been unsuccessful at this (using Disk utility). I tried using WINCLONE but for whatever reason the new HD errors out after completion and then fails to boot. I would like a Mac-based tool but have been using Ghost 8.1 on an XP VM which works OK but here is what I have noticed:

1. For Windows 7 NTFS drives, I can image with Ghost and deploy that image to a new and larger sized HD with no problems. The new HD will boot as expected.
2. For XP I have been having issues. I can image the XP HD with Ghost, but after I tried re-imaging to a larger HD, it says it's successful but will not boot.

For the XP instance, I recall reading some article on the web that it can't handle the partition size transfer very well when cloned, leading me to believe that this might be why it's not booting up properly. Apparently Win7 has better support so the re-image to bigger HD does boot when I test it out.

If there is a be-all-end-all solution for HD imaging which allows re-imaging to a larger size HD than the original, please let me know!

P · May 10, 2011, 07:02 AM

I had to do this a while back, and eventually settled on doing it using XP. I used scopy from the Windows terminal to simply copy the entire HD from one drive to the other. This page is what I eventually ended up following. Took a long time, but I must have tried 10 different procedures and this is the one that worked.

Big Mac · May 10, 2011, 12:10 PM

For cloning Windows disks in Windows, I can personally recommend EASEUS Todo Backup Home. I've also read good things about Macrium Reflect as the other major freeware option, although some indicate it to be less user friendly and I haven't yet used it myself. I'm not a fan of Paragon, Acronis or Norton Ghost because all three of us did not give me a reliable clone.

seanc · May 10, 2011, 04:26 PM

Clonezilla should work to clone the disk. I'd then use GParted to expand the partition afterwards.
What is your goal? Are you trying to deploy a number of Macs with the same XP image?

herbsman · May 11, 2011, 04:39 PM

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll try some of the other options

Main goal is deploy an XP image to new incoming PC laptops. The users need 500gb HDs but our vendor supplied model (the ones we have to order due to business pricing) all come shipped with 250gb HDs so the base image I have been working on I started with a 250 which needs to be re-imaged to the 500 while opening up the remainder of the space.

I suppose I could just start over with a base image built on a 500 but thought I'd crowd-source for alternative solutions and it's good for my brain to learn about these things

seanc · May 11, 2011, 04:52 PM

What equipment do you have available? It's probably a good time to learn about Windows Deployment Services and Sysprep.

Process for using WDS: Network boot the laptops, format HDD, apply image, reboot and use laptop.

herbsman · May 11, 2011, 04:57 PM

That does sound like something good to know. In terms of equipment, aside from ordering boatloads of laptops, it's pretty bare bones here where I work. We have an east coast and west coast branch (me being in the west coast) so there's not too much in terms of servers for client management (AD/OD type stuff).

The East coasters are a Windows-House, everyone lives and dies on Windows except the execs who all use macs.

The west coast is a Mac-house, but no OpenDirectory (yet) and no AD integration.

What type of equipment, OS, SW, etc would I need to get WDS up and running? I can probably request the needed equipment and get it all approved. Thanks!

seanc · May 12, 2011, 02:18 PM

As a minimum, a P4 running Server 2003 with 512MB RAM, but you're better off with a Pentium Dual Core, a couple of gigs of RAM, Server 2008 R2 because WDS has some new useful features only available with R2.

Cold Warrior · May 16, 2011, 08:23 AM

Ghost Enterprise wil let you deploy images over the network. If you have server 2k8, WDS is a built-in option. Do some reading about it though, because there are additional considerations if your WDS is also your network's DHCP server.

I assume you're sysprepping these images.