#1 I seem to have to reactivate with the serial number each time I run the program, that’s a new software behavior, is it intentional?
#2 I want to clone, mostly. Here, from MiniTool’s website: “… MiniTool ShadowMaker is the best free cloning software developed by MiniTool Software Ltd. to help clone a hard drive Windows 7/8/10. It provides a wide range of disk backup services including file backup and restore, partitioning, and most importantly, cloning. It can even clone a system drive to make a bootable Windows 10/8/7 OS. We highly recommend this safe and free solution for disk cloning. Now, download a free MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition for 30-day … ( You can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to clone a bootable hard drive in Windows 10/8/7. That is, if you clone a system disk to SSD, the SSD will be bootable after cloning as long as you set it as the first boot order in BIOS. ) …”
So … this looks usable for cloning, and the options in the program seem to allow us to point to any 2 connected drives, presumably the operating system boot drive will not be the target.
Probably NOT UEFI ( good, I hate UEFI, and remove it whenever I find it ).
#3 It promises to make a WinPE bootable backup, but just for restore, not for cloning? In other words, how do I copy the clone BACK into a crashed or blank-drive computer ( instead of swapping the good clone drive for the presumably failed boot drive, or can we use the clone drive as a master to “restore” a series of computers to be the same, or to restore the same computer over and over as a clone of the clone, or do we need a working computer to clone the clone for subsequent use, leaving the master available for re-cloning )? Those are big, complex tasks, but MiniTool has been useful in the past, so I presume it’s up to it.
The instruction manual is on the web as HTML with no search, OUCH! How do I use the software during a crash recovery?
It offers a PXE-server for network booting for computers with no bootable drive of their own, and then supposedly that drive-less computer can … or the working PXE-server computer can … well, somehow, MiniTool ShadowMaker promises to clone TO the unbootable computer’s blank or crashed drive, and then that formerly dead or formerly blank computer can boot up – all on your own network.
This appears very powerful, but without a PDF instruction manual for local reference, this seems to REQUIRE at least ONE working INTERNET connected PC as your dedicated owner’s manual reader from their web site. Weird. Simply weird. Maybe I’ll find a web-grabber program to download the instruction manual to be local. Ouch, ouch, ouch!
Note the 30-day trial, so we can use MiniTool ShadowMaker to clone on demand after the license expires, or use a new version, just within a 30 day window on a particular PC. Bbuutt … how long is this license for, and for what versions? It does not say anywhere how long or if updates or upgrades are included in the serial number or not. Forever license for one version? Updatable forever or for a year or never?
Who knows?
Seriously, who knows?
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