clone offline system with win7

[qastrox]

Hello
My computer is broken, it does not read anymore internal disks, but it works fine with USB HDD.
I got the old internal disk with Windows 7 e put in in an external usb box, now I would like to recover my old Windows 7 from it.
Is it possible to clone my ex-internal system with win7 to another USB disk, or to modify it in order to work from a usb?
Maybe the feature "Clone current Windows OS" of the 2.0 beta can be modified in order to clone also off line systems...
Thank you.
Nicola

[admin]

Sorry, WinToUSB can only clone current running Windows OS to USB.

[davidinfodom]

Hello
My computer is broken, it does not read anymore internal disks, but it works fine with USB HDD.
I got the old internal disk with Windows 7 e put in in an external usb box, now I would like to recover my old Windows 7 from it.
Is it possible to clone my ex-internal system with win7 to another USB disk, or to modify it in order to work from a usb?
Maybe the feature "Clone current Windows OS" of the 2.0 beta can be modified in order to clone also off line systems...
Thank you.
Nicola

Hi Nicola,
I may have found a workaround for you.
This is maybe not the easiest and quickest way, but at least you should be able at the end to convert your Windows 7 as a WinToUSB drive.
Also, please note the process I describe is just an idea that I haven't tested myself. So I hope it will work for you, but I can't guarantee it.

Here is the idea.

As WinToUSB doesn't support (yet ? :p) the cloning of offline system, then you need of course to run WinToUSB from your System online in order to clone it.
However as your disk can't be booted anymore from its original machine, then the question is how to do so ?

And here is the trick :
You could maybe first convert your Windows 7 into a Virtual machine, or at least boot your system from a Virtual Machine.
This can be done with a free tool called VirtualBox and the procedure to perform this is well described, step-by-step here : How to boot from a usb drive in VirtualBox

Then as soon as you are able to access your Windows 7, then you can install WinToUSB and convert your (virtually) "Physical drive" as a WinToUSB drive.


Again, I realize this is probably not the simplest process, but if ever you want to give it a try, then please let me know as I'm really interesting by your feedback to know if it worked or not.

Wishing good luck.

Kind Regards,
David