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Instead of installing a new Windows 7 system onto a mac pro partition, is it possible to copy over my complete Windows 7 system directly onto the partition, and get it to run? I just bought the mac pro, and it's running OSX 10.6...

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I wish to make a windows partition on the mac pro startup disk, but instead of installing windows, was wondering if I can copy over from my pc laptop byte for byte my windows system into said partition, and successfully run it

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No. Windows won't run on HFS+, and it doesn't like the hardware changing under it that drastically.

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Sounds like the OP doesn't necessarily want it on the same partition, just the same disk. (And even so, virtualization is always an option.) – Ben Alpert Jan 17 '11 at 3:56
That's right... I phrased my question poorly. I wish to make a windows partition on the mac pro startup disk, but instead of installing windows, was wondering if I can copy over from my pc laptop byte for byte my windows system into said partition, and successfully run it... – BEATFROMBRAIN Jan 17 '11 at 4:16
Potentially (it can be done on PCs), but it will not like the boot sector, so you may have to fight with Boot Camp. – Randolph West Jan 17 '11 at 4:31
Might loading the Apple drivers from the OSX dvd afterwards, as done with a normal windows install, solve it? – BEATFROMBRAIN Jan 17 '11 at 6:29
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You could probably use Acronis True Image with Universal Restore to do a bare metal recovery onto your mac, then load up the boot camp drivers.

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  1. Use bootcamp to create a partition
  2. use a windows installation disk to format that partition to ntfs
  3. cancel the installation
  4. use a disk utility to copy the windows drive to the new partition
  5. install bootcamp drivers.
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