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History: My macbook hard disk failed after i dropped it and I need to replace my hard drive. I have a hard drive from a PC laptop that has Windows Vista 64-bit installed on it.

Objective: I want to replace my macbook hard disk with the PC hard disk and run the Windows Vista that is on it.

Problem: How do I do this without reformatting my windows hard disk? This hard disk probably has a MBR and no GUID partition (GPT). Is there a way for me to change the boot sector to GPT safely and the windows Vista SP1 will boot from it? I definitely can't run it as an external hard disk with external case since Windows Vista doesnt support USB booting. Is there a boot manager program that will add an EFI partition to my hard disk?

Random Idea: If there was a program that would allow me to transfer my windows partition to a backup drive, I could probably install OSX and then use bootcamp to setup the hybrid boot sector and then copy back my windows partition. That might be the perfect solution, if there's no way to move a windows hard disk to a mac.

Update: I have read that it is possible to migrate a windows bootcamp installation using WinClone, so I will attempt to use winclone on the windows partition from my PC and then restore this to a fresh bootcamp setup using Winclone

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    Why not buy a new hard drive they aren't that expensive compared to other components at least. What your basically asking is "how do I take the sugar creme out a creme egg and replace it with salt?"
    – Jonathan.
    Jan 6, 2012 at 0:07
  • yes thats what im asking and if its possible and how to do it :)
    – kzap
    Jan 6, 2012 at 0:17

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You could install a retail version of Windows on the Mac and migrate your data (which you would previously have backed up) onto it. Just mounting a Windows install that had been made on other hardware is pretty much doomed to failure. The correct hardware drivers won't be present and the existing ones wouldn't be correct for the hardware, for starters.

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  • i understand, will try though a windows repair first on the mac, if all else fails i will try this method you mentioned. Thanks
    – kzap
    Jan 6, 2012 at 23:17

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