MBA WIndows 7 Bootcamp Freezes

[ClickRight]

Hi All,

I have a MacBook air in the shop. All hardware passes fine (TechTools 6) and the Mac OS works great. The Windows 7 side (bootcamp) will not load. If you try and boot in normal or safe mode it will freeze. I checked the partition from the Windows side, and it appears Windows update was the last thing that ran as the log file was updated recently.

Great I thought, I will pop in a Windows 7 install disk and restore to the last system restore point. Pop in the Windows 7 CD-ROM, pick it from the boot menu -- same thing but now it freezes on the installation DVD. I thought about removing the drive to hook up to another windows machine, however it's an integrated SSD -- I'm not too sure what I can do next.

[ClickRight]

Well since I couldn't remove the SSD there wasn't much I more I could do. We offered to backup the client's data and reinstall their Win 7 OS in bootcamp, however they didn't have a legit Windows 7 disc. Ended up sending the client on his way

[300DDR]

Darn… didn't catch this post in time.

FYI… you can buy an enclosure for that drive. Then you could have hooked up to another machine. I would have also tested RAM and hard drive to make sure they were ok.

Another idea for future, I think VMWare Fusion and/or Parallels (which are both much better than running bootcamp IMO, except in rare situations, and worth it for client to pay you to "upgrade" them) can "import" the bootcamp partition. Maybe they can just "access" it, but I think I read a while ago that they can import.

Ok… quick google search shows Parallels at least can: http://download.parallels.com/deskto...uide/22640.htm

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Originally Posted by 300DDR

Darn… didn't catch this post in time.

FYI… you can buy an enclosure for that drive. Then you could have hooked up to another machine. I would have also tested RAM and hard drive to make sure they were ok.

Another idea for future, I think VMWare Fusion and/or Parallels (which are both much better than running bootcamp IMO, except in rare situations, and worth it for client to pay you to "upgrade" them) can "import" the bootcamp partition. Maybe they can just "access" it, but I think I read a while ago that they can import.

Ok… quick google search shows Parallels at least can: http://download.parallels.com/deskto...uide/22640.htm

Yeah, I missed it too. I only pop on here once or twice a day anymore and move on. But on the subject of migrating or importing bootcamp partitions, the best tool I've used by far is Winclone. Basically, it lets you create a disk image of the bootcamp partition even if booted to the same drive, but the volume on the OSX partition. Then once you have the disk image, you can delete and recreate the bootcamp partition, then restore the disk image to the volume or even a completely different drive or machine for that matter. Whenever I do drive installs where customers want their bootcamp partitions transferred over, this is my go to tool. Saves a ton of work and there is really nothing else like it out there that I've seen. They used to have a free version which I still have. Then for a while it disappeared altogether and I was completely bummed by that. At least now its been brought back to life, but they charge for it. But still well worth the money.