MiniTool volume copy is "Backing up my system" -- why?

I'm trying to make a volume copy of my laptop's hard disk with MiniTool Partition Wizard. I need help understanding what it's doing and why.

The volume has four partitions: System (Windows 7's recovery partition), Windows, and two data partitions. I started the backup expecting it to take a few hours, and I planned to go to bed for the night once it was under way.

It copied the system partition, then told me it couldn't copy the Windows partition because that partition was in use; to continue it would have to restart the computer and run standalone. I told it to go ahead. It restarted the computer, and hung with a blank screen showing a flashing character mode cursor. I figured it must have tried to boot from the destination disk rather than the original disk, so I unplugged the destination disk (connected via USB) and restarted the system with a three-finger salute. Once the boot was under way I plugged the destination disk in again, and when Partition Wizard came up it resumed copying.

I've mentioned this to raise the possibility that the computer later restarted again, and again got the destination disk. Also, what I did was irregular, and though it seemed to work, it might have had unintended effects.

Anyway, at this point I went to bed, expecting that when I woke up in the morning the volume copy would be complete. Instead I woke up about an hour later to find a dialog box on the screen. It apparently was created by the company that refurbished the laptop and sold it to me, and it asked me to accept the terms of the Windows 7 license before making a backup copy of Windows. I accepted the license, and whatever software was running opened a dialog box titled "Create System Recovery Media." The dialog has the message "Backing up your system. This may take 15-30 minutes." It has a progress bar and a "Step 1 / Step 2" indicator set to Step 1.

That's where i am now. but it's not taking 15-30 minutes; based on the progress so far, it seems likely to take more like 20 hours. And I haven't got 20 hours. In about 18 hours I have to pack up the computer and leave town. If the copy operation isn't done I'll have to interrupt it, and when I get a chance I'll have to start it over.

How did I get here? I told MiniTool to copy a disk; how did it come to "Create System recovery Media" on or from the disk? Why is it taking so long to do so, and what can I do, now or after a restart, to make it do what I asked and no more?

Your running the wrong tool you need to use cloning software like Magnum reflect with that you can create an image which is compressed to save space. Partition software copies the partition only as a rule so often this won't work as it doesn't copy boot sector so it wouldn't boot

Thank you for pointing out the boot partition problem. The tool is perfectly suitable, but I used the wrong command; there's a separate "migrate OS" operation which I should have used. I'll do that when I have a chance to try again.

I encountered another problem, though, which "migrate OS" may or may not get around. I woke up this morning to find "Create System Recovery Media" stalled at 18% complete, and an error box open which said:

Windows Srript Host
ERROR:k:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment\amd64\en-us\winpe.wim [err = 112]

Again, I haven't the faintest idea what it's telling me or why. In case this problem affects "migrate OS" as well, can you (or anyone) clarify it?

When I closed the error box I got another dialog prompting me to insert and select a USB drive, where I assume it would write the System Rrecovery Media that it failed to create. I restarted the system at that point; this experiment is failed anyway.