# Use an existing partition with Bootcamp?



## 1zacster (May 30, 2011)

i'm thinking of possibly getting a mac and i know bootcamp is kinda like a dual booting app, but can I just copy my current windows partition to my external hdd then to a partition on the mac so I don't lose any data?


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

To boot Windows on a Mac, you have to use Boot Camp to create the partition because it create the necessary hooks in the firmware to allow for an emulated BIOS required for Windows to boot. Once the partition is created, you might be able to use a tool like Winclone to copy your Windows install to the Mac, but I think you will end up with a big headache in the end. The copying will include the drivers for the hardware the install was on, not the Mac hardware, so you'll enter a driver nightmare trying to convert to the correct ones. The other issue will be that Windows will see that it's on different hardware and require you to revalidate your copy of Windows, which will fail unless it's a retail copy of Windows meant for installing on PC's with no OS.

So, the short of it is yes, you can copy it, but you will not end up with a working bootable Windows install. Instead, there software packages that will move your data from Windows PCs to your Mac if you are converting to a Mac. Also, I believe Windows also has software that will move user data from on PC to another for when you get a new computer. This will let you install Windows with Boot Camp, and then move all the data over.


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