bit-by-bit image?
Hi,
before I buy True Image I was wondering whether it could actually image an entire SDD disk, bit-by-bit?
I have a Macbook Air with an SSD drive. I barely use the Mac partition but most of the time the Windows 7 one on bootcamp.
That's why I need something that copies bit-by-bit an SSD.
So when I restore, everything is restored correctly, both partitions, all info, all signatures.
Since it's not a hard drive, the drive format doesn't matter at all. It's just a matter of copying each SSD cell content into one big file and restore it as a perfect photocopy.
Is True Image able to do this?
Thanks for any help.
Hi Steve,
I don't think this is officially supported, but have a look at this thread, it's an interesting read.
Thanks all,
Shadowsports, I read it but the problem is that as always, everyone talks about separate partitions.
I don't , I won't the entire SSD content which of course includes both bootcamp partitions, the mac and the windows one.
The solutions I have been offered all refer to imaging the mac partition and the another one for the pc partition. It's exactly what I want to avoid, because the partition sigantures change and you can't get back to an exact copy of the entire content. I have tried with Norton Ghost. Restoring the Windows partition works only after deleting bootcamp, recreate it (that's where the signature changes), and restore the ghost image, even if you tell it to restore the signature.
Again, physical partitions are formatted and organized in different manners, but in SSD they should not. It's just a serie of bits that are then deciphered by the different OS when you boot. But for storing? From address 0x00000 up to 0xWhateverSize.
Thanks all,
Shadowsports, I read it but the problem is that as always, everyone talks about separate partitions.
I don't , I won't the entire SSD content which of course includes both bootcamp partitions, the mac and the windows one.
Do a full disk image backup. Select the checkbox for the entire disk, instead of selecting individual partitions. Once you select the checkbox for the entire disk, you'll see that all partitions are automatically included.
A full disk image backup is the best form of backup, as it can be restored even to a brand new, unformatted drive, and will contain everything that was on the original drive.
I have never imaged a drive containing both PC and Mac partitions, so I can't guarantee from personal experience that everything will work the same. But, I would certainly try it as a full disk image backup to see if that does what you need.
Also, I think it's best to first try making the backup and doing recovery both from the bootable Recovery Media (either on CD-R or USB). The bootable Recovery Media is linux-based so it takes Windows out of the equation.