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I have the 2016 MBP and built up my Windows 10 installation just as I would like it. To speed up recovery and re-installation to it's current point I would like to backup the Bootcamp drive so that I can reinstall from that and not have to reinstall Windows and all the applications I have now configured.

As a first attempt at this I installed DataNumen Disk Image and MacDrive 10 Standard. I used this combination to create a .img backup of the Bootcamp drive, from within Windows, to an external HFS+ formatted drive, so that if Windows fails I can still access the .img file from macOS Sierra.

Am I doing this correctly? Will I be able to reinstall from the .img file and short-circuit the painfully slow re-install process of Windows' apps? Is there a more appropriate method?

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I would never attempt to handle any aspect of Boot Camp partitioning or data structuring from inside Windows.
Windows has no idea its partition is balanced precariously on a 'fake' MBR disk sitting inside a GUID partition. Too many people touch it & break it.

Instead I would use something designed specifically for Boot Camp installations within the Mac environment. That way you're not tightrope-walking.

As far as I'm aware, Paragon Hard Disk Manager is the only app that can do the task in its entirety, handling Boot Camp & Mac partitions - move, backup/restore etc.

TwoCanoe's WinClone can do the Boot Camp partition, but doesn't handle the Mac partitions.

Carbon Copy Cloner is great for your Mac Partitions, but not Boot Camp. It requires you already have the specialised partitioning structure in place - see Bombich KB: Can CCC back up my BootCamp (Windows) partition?

I own all three, but am not affiliated with any of the recommendations

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  • You're really getting at the main concern here: "Should the install be handled by Windows (I agree that it should not) and can an installable backup be made from the Mac side?" I will take a look at Paragon HDM. I was wondering if there are free/self-implemented answers (even if they are more involved.) Thank you.
    – Matt W
    Feb 24, 2017 at 10:10
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    There are a couple of guys on here who could pretty much knit you a hard drive if you gave them the wool ;-) One that springs immediately to mind is klanomath though there are others. Have a look at a couple of fairly random answers I picked out & see how scary it all looks... then buy the software ;) [cont'd...]
    – Tetsujin
    Feb 24, 2017 at 10:27
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    ...cont'd] apple.stackexchange.com/questions/171509/… and apple.stackexchange.com/questions/175483/… ought to be enough to frighten anyone.
    – Tetsujin
    Feb 24, 2017 at 10:28

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