Tools

MiniTool ShadowMaker not only offers backup solution, but also provides some useful features to cater to different user needs.

Media Builder

MiniTool Media Builder offers a perfect solution to create bootable media based on WinPE, which provides better compatibility with your computer's hardware. With MiniTool Media Builder, it is possible to restore the operating system to the previous state even when your computer fails to boot.

How to Create WinPE Based Bootable Media

Before you do:

Prepare a recordable CD/DVD disc and insert it into your CD/DVD driver. Or you can prepare a USB flash drive and then connect it to your PC. Or you can connect a USB hard disk to your computer.

Step 1: Select Media Builder from Tools to get the main interface.

Step 2: Select WinPE-based media with MiniTool plug-in to continue.

Step 3: Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to make an ISO file, create a bootable USB flash drive, create a bootable external hard disk, or build a bootable CD/DVD disc.

① ISO File:

To make a .iso file, please select ISO File and then choose where to save the .iso file.

Please wait patiently until MiniTool Media Builder finishes building the .iso file. Then, click the Finish button.

② USB Flash Disk

To create a bootable USB flash drive, please select USB Flash Disk option and select the correct USB flash drive if there are many. Then click Yes to confirm that you want to create the bootable media.

Please wait until MiniTool Media Builder finishes building the USB bootable drive. Finally, click Finish after successful burning.

③USB Hard Disk

To create a bootable external hard drive, please click USB Hard Disk option. Then, a warning appears to tell you that your device will be formatted. To continue, click Yes button.

Please wait until MiniTool Media Builder finishes building the bootable USB hard disk. Finally, click Finish after successful burning.

④CD/DVD Writer

To build a bootable CD/DVD disc, please select CD/DVD Writer and then click Yes to confirm that you want the burning.

Please wait until MiniTool Media Builder finishes building the CD/DVD bootable disc. Finally, click Finish after successful burning.

How to Boot from the WinPE Based Bootable Media

Step 1: Connect the burned MiniTool bootable media to your PC, and then start your computer.

Step 2: Wait for the message telling you how to enter BIOS appears and do as it prompts. Note that different computers may show different messages or require users to press different keys to access BIOS. If you miss the message, just restart your computer and try again.

Step 3: In BIOS, you need to set the first boot order.

① If you are trying to boot from the USB flash disk, set your USB drive as the 1st boot option and save configuration changes.

② If you are trying to boot from the CD/DVD disc, set the disc as the 1st boot option and save configuration changes.

③ If you are trying to boot from the external hard drive, set the disk as the 1st boot option and save configuration changes.

Step 4: After selecting whether to change screen resolution, and whether to load MiniTool Software, you have finally come to the main interface of MiniTool ShadowMaker Bootable.

Add Boot Menu

Normally, it is required to burn an .iso file to an USB flash drive or CD/DVD disk to create a bootable media. However, MiniTool ShadowMaker puts forward an easier way to achieve this aim. By simply adding MiniTool ShadowMaker to the boot menu, you can enter the MiniTool Recovery Environment which will start Windows PE and allow full system restore without a bootable media.

How to Add Boot Menu

Step 1. Enter Add Boot Menu under Tools .

Step 2. Select Add Boot Menu and confirm the operation.

Step 3. Wait for the operation to complete.

How to Delete Boot Menu

If you no longer need MiniTool Recovery Environment, you can delete the boot menu.

Step 1. Enter Add Boot Menu under Tools .

Step 2. Select Delete Boot Menu and confirm the operation.

The deletion will be finished quickly.

Mount

MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to mount partition backup images, disk backup images and system backup images as virtual drives. Note that all these images should be created by using MiniTool ShadowMaker. Once a backup image is mounted, a new partition appears in Windows Explorer and you can quickly access the drive to view backup files inside.

How to Mount an Image

Step 1. Enter Mount under Tools , and then select a backup task from the list window.

Step 2. Select a backup task from the list and then click Next to continue.

Step 3. Select a backup version and hit Next to go on.

Step 4. Choose a partition to be mounted and click Finish .

Step 5. MiniTool ShadowMaker will ask you whether you want to mount the drive image, click Yes to confirm.

Immediately the mounting operating is finished. Now you can see the new mounted partition under Windows Explorer .

Dismount

It is suggested that when all necessary operations are finished, you can dismount the virtual disk since maintaining it there takes considerable system resources, and you may carry out some operations on the wrong partition.

How to Dismount an Image

Step 1. Enter Dismount under Tools .

Step 2. Check the volume you want to dismount and click Dismount button.

Clone Disk

Clone is another useful feature of MiniTool ShadowMaker, which is significant for hard drive upgrading. A big difference between disk clone and disk image is that when you clone a disk, you can directly use it after the operation, while you will have to restore a disk image before you can use it directly. MiniTool ShadowMaker even can help you to clone the dynamic disk.

How to Clone Basic Disk

Step 1. Go to Clone Disk under Tools .

Step 2. Choose which disk to clone and where to store the copy.

Step 3. Confirm that you want to start the task and wait for the process to finish.

Message you should pay attention to:

When disk cloning is finished successfully, you will see the following message:

This means both the source disk and the target disk has the same signature, thus one disk is marked as offline by Windows. Just remove one that you don't need.

How to Clone Dynamic Disk

MiniTool ShadowMaker also enables you to clone the dynamic disk. Now, you can refer to the following instructions.

Step 1: Go to Clone Disk Under Tools .

Step 2: Choose the clone source by clicking The Source Disk . Here, you need to choose the dynamic disk.

Step 3: Choose the target disk by clicking The Target Disk section.

Step 4: Confirm that you want to start the task.

Step 5: Wait for the process to be finished.

Step 6: When the process is finished, you will receive the following message.

This means both the source disk and the target disk has the same signature, thus you need to disconnect or remove either of them. In addition, if you want to boot your computer from the target disk, you need to change the BIOS settings.

MiniTool PXE Boot

PXE is short for Preboot Execute Environment. MiniTool PXE Boot is designed to boot many computers from micro system in network. To put it simple, you can use MiniTool PXE Boot to make other client PCs boot from the same network. After booting, all client PCs are able to back up, restore or clone with tools offered in Windows PE micro system. In a word, MiniTool PXE Boot offers the best way to maintain multiple computers in LAN.

How to Use MiniTool PXE Boot

Step 1. Select PXE under Tools on host computer.

Step 2. Click Start button to begin the PXE service.

Step 3. In a few minutes, MiniTool PXE Boot will start the service to connect client PCs.

When you see the information "Connected to the server", you can set the client PCs to boot from network in BIOS. When all client PCs are booting from PXE network, maintaining hard drives on many clients will be easier.

Step 4. When you have finished all tasks on all client PCs, you can stop PXE service on the host computer.

Remote

The Remote computer is a computer which you cannot access physically. But you can access or manage it via some kind of computer network. The Remote connections are made by the use of network that connects to the computer and the device that is used to access it.

For example, MiniTool ShadowMaker enables you to access it or manage it after inputting the IP address. After that, you can manage the remote computer as long as they are on the same LAN.

How do you know the IP address of your computer?

In order to know the IP address of your computer, you can open the Command Line window, then input the ipconfig command and hit Enter to continue. Thus, you can see that the IPv4 address of your computer is listed here, which can be used to access your computer by other people. Of course, you can also know the IP address on the Network and Sharing Center .

How to access Remote computer?

Go to the Tools page, click Remote , and MiniTool ShadowMaker will relaunch. Then, input an IP address in the pop-up window and press the right Connect button to start the remote backup.

Command Shell

Command Shell is designed for advanced users and only appears under Windows PE. By selecting Command Shell , you will see Windows built-in cmd.exe which will perform whatever task or function it's designed to perform in Windows.

How to Access Command Shell

Step 1. Under Tools , select Command Shell .

Step 2. Immediately Windows built-in cmd.exe appears. Now input the commands you want it to carry out.

Universal Restore

Restoring system to original hardware or identical hardware is easy. However, if you try to restore system to dissimilar hardware, the restored system is likely to fail to boot. This is because the new hardware is incompatible with the critical drivers included in the system. Thus, the Universal Restore feature can help to install and update drivers so as to solve some incompatible problems.

MiniTool Universal Restore technology enables you to restore your system to any available machine. If you are trying to restore system to a computer with dissimilar processor, motherboard, or chipset, MiniTool Universal Restore is useful. This utility will find and install necessities for devices that are critical for the current operating system to start up.

How to Carry out Universal Restore

Step 1. Enter WinPE created by MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2. Under Tools , select Universal Restore .

Step 3. MiniTool Universal Restore will automatically detect and list the operating systems installed on the hard drive for you to choose.

Step 4. Select the operating system to be restored and press Restore button. When the process is finished, you can exit WinPE and boot Windows on dissimilar hardware successfully.