Equivalent to Nandroid on Windows?


dedq

Well-known member
Local time
7:21 PM
Posts
61
Location
Serbia
OS
Windows 11
Hey!

I'm catching myself having to reinstall system from time to time and sometimes that it's not even my decision so I just wanted to ask whether there is a way to restore literally everything from one system to another. I know that is possible on Android using custom recovery like TWRP but I just wanted to ask whether that is possible on Windows. I guess it cannot be possible in a way that you restore literally everything since every PC is different in terms of drivers in like that but I'm asking about making a backup on one PC and then restoring the back up with all the data back to that PC once you reinstall the system.

Thank you for reading!
 
Windows Build/Version
Widows 11 Official.

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X4 860K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte F2A58M-S1
    Memory
    8 gigabytes DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon R7200 Series
    Hard Drives
    SSD.
I believe Macrium Reflect has the facility to create a system image, and then restore the image to another device with different hardware

It's not something I use myself but there are people on the forum that do ...

a site search should get you started - but I'm sure one of the actual users with experience of this will be along to help shortly
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64 [Latest Release Preview] [Win11 PRO HighEnd MUP-00005 DD]
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Scan 3XS to my design
    CPU
    AMD RYZEN 9 7950X OEM
    Motherboard
    *3XS*ASUS TUF B650 PLUS WIFI
    Memory
    64GB [2x32GB Corsair Vengeance 560 AMD DDR5]
    Graphics Card(s)
    3XS* ASUS DUAL RTX 4060 OC 8G
    Sound Card
    On motherboard Feeding SPDiF 5.1 system [plus local sound to each monitor]
    Monitor(s) Displays
    32" UHD 32 Bit HDR Monitor + 43" UHD 4K 32Bit HDR TV
    Screen Resolution
    2 x 3840 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    3XS Samsung 980Pro 2TB M.2 PCIe4 4 x 8TB Data + Various Externals from 1TB to 8TB, 10TB NAS
    PSU
    3XS Corsair RM850x 850w Fully Modular
    Case
    FDesign Define 7 XL BK TGL Case - Black
    Cooling
    3XS iCUE H150i ELITE Liquid Cool, Quiet Case fans
    Keyboard
    Wireless Logitec MX Keys + K830 [Depending on where I'm Sat]
    Mouse
    Wireless Logitec - MX Master 3S +
    Internet Speed
    950 MB Down 55 MB Up
    Browser
    Latest Chrome
    Antivirus
    BitDefender Total Security [Latest]
    Other Info
    Also run...
    Dell XPS 17 Laptop
    HP Laptop 8GB - Windows 10 Pro x64 HP 15.2"
    Nexus 7 Android tablet [x2]
    Samsung 10.2" tablet
    Blackview 10.2 Tablet
    Sony Z3 Android Smartphone
    Samsung S9 Plus Smartphone
    Wacom Pro Medium Pen Pad
    Wacom Pro Small Pen Pad
    Wacom ExpressKey Remote
    Loopdeck+ Graphics Controller
    Shuttle Pro v2 Control Pad
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro x64 [Latest release]
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 17 9700
    CPU
    i7 10750H
    Motherboard
    Stock
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Stock Intel + GTX 1650 Ti
    Sound Card
    Stock 4 speaker
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Stock 17" + 32" 4K 3840 x 2160 HDR-10
    Screen Resolution
    3840 x 2400 HDR touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    2TB M2 NVMe
    PSU
    Stock
    Case
    Stock Aluminium / Carbon Fibre
    Cooling
    Stock + 2 fan cooling pad
    Mouse
    Stock Trackpad +Logi Mx Master 3 or MX Ergo Trackball
    Keyboard
    Stock Illuminated + Logi - MX Keys
    Internet Speed
    950 MB Down 55 MB Up
    Browser
    Latest Chrome
    Antivirus
    BitDefender Total Security 2021
    Other Info
    Also use an Adjustable Support for Laptop and Adjustable stand for monitor
@Bree :unsure: I was reading what she did only yesterday using Macrium Reflect, Post #3 here and Post #6 here . I am sure she would not mind me dropping her name in, and giving a mention.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 5 5600
    Motherboard
    MSI B550-A Pro
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire Radeon RX 6500XT (8 GB version)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ Mobuiz EX2710Q QHD, Iiyama ProLite X23377HDS
    Hard Drives
    MSI Spatium M461 4TB
  • Operating System
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer A114
    CPU
    Intel Celeron N4020
Hi there
These days Windows has reasonably good "Hardware Search" so often you can restore an image to different hardware and Windows will find the required drivers (or can be searched for). So the Free edition of Macrium is on the whole good enough for this purpose.

When moving / copying to new hardware though you might need to re-activate Windows -- although these days with digital activation it seems remarkably tolerant compared to the old days where just adding another internal HDD could cause you to re-activate Windows again.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
I am sure she would not mind me dropping her name in
It's 'he' actually ('Bree' had other meanings to me when I chose it) but no, I don't mind.

Yes, I have a licensed Reflect so I could restore to dissimilar hardware with its ReDeploy premium feature if I wanted to. I have never yet found it necessary, Windows itself does a good job at sorting out the drivers to use.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Lattitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
I believe Macrium Reflect has the facility to create a system image, and then restore the image to another device with different hardware

It's not something I use myself but there are people on the forum that do ...

a site search should get you started - but I'm sure one of the actual users with experience of this will be along to help shortly
That's right and I will wait for various experiences so I can ask people what I want to know.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X4 860K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte F2A58M-S1
    Memory
    8 gigabytes DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon R7200 Series
    Hard Drives
    SSD.
Hi there
These days Windows has reasonably good "Hardware Search" so often you can restore an image to different hardware and Windows will find the required drivers (or can be searched for). So the Free edition of Macrium is on the whole good enough for this purpose.

When moving / copying to new hardware though you might need to re-activate Windows -- although these days with digital activation it seems remarkably tolerant compared to the old days where just adding another internal HDD could cause you to re-activate Windows again.

Cheers
jimbo
Thanks!

Will it restore literally everything since I have hard drive dedicated to games solely.
Will it restore "Downloads" folder for example which is something I can backup to other place but just asking.
I have two hard disks and one of them contains programs while other contains games. Is there a way to backup two hard drives in one backup which would be combined or it's one hard disk followed by one backup?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Athlon X4 860K
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte F2A58M-S1
    Memory
    8 gigabytes DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon R7200 Series
    Hard Drives
    SSD.
When you make a backup with Macrium (and indeed, other software), whatever you backup is what you (are able to) restore, with the only real limitations being 1) available drive space, and 2) the backups themselves not being corrupted.

Each backup is normally done on a per-drive basis, but you can back them both up in a single process. Therefore, restoring would require restoring each drive separately, but, again, you should be able to restore them in a single process, just perform what is usually called a batch restore.

For the games though, consider this: Unless you have poor internet connectivity, or games no longer available from a source, it might be better ot consider just backing up the relevant save games and mods and such, rather than backing up entire games, particularly if you're talking about modern titles, which can run anywhere from tens of GB of data to hundreds of GB, when including hi-res data / remastered games with hi-res / 4K content.

The vast majority of games I own are through a platform, and I can always reinstall the game at any time, so I typically do not backup the games themselves.

But, as I noted, it depends upon your own situation - what works for me may not work for you.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 23H2 Current build
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HomeBrew
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
    Motherboard
    MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE
    Memory
    4 * 32 GB - Corsair Vengeance 3600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING (12G-P5-3955-KR)
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC1220 Codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x Eve Spectrum ES07D03 4K Gaming Monitor (Matte) | Eve Spectrum ES07DC9 4K Gaming Monitor (Glossy)
    Screen Resolution
    3x 3840 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    3x Samsung 980 Pro NVMe PCIe 4 M.2 2 TB SSD (MZ-V8P2T0B/AM) } 3x Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1 TB SSD (USB)
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling’s Silencer Series 1050 Watt, 80 Plus Platinum
    Case
    Fractal Design Define 7 XL Dark ATX Full Tower Case
    Cooling
    NZXT KRAKEN Z73 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (3x 120 mm push top) + Air 3x 140mm case fans (pull front) + 1x 120 mm (push back) and 1 x 120 mm (pull bottom)
    Keyboard
    SteelSeries Apex Pro Wired Gaming Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3S | MX Master 3 for Business
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex Ftth
    Browser
    Nightly (default) + Firefox (stable), Chrome, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender + MB 5 Beta
  • Operating System
    ChromeOS Flex Dev Channel (current)
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude E5470
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2501 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
    Motherboard
    Dell
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
    Sound Card
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 + RealTek Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell laptop display 15"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 * 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 128GB M.2 22300 drive
    INTEL Cherryville 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SATA III SSD
    PSU
    Dell
    Case
    Dell
    Cooling
    Dell
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3S (shared w. Sys 1) | Dell TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Dell
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex Ftth

Latest Support Threads

Back
Top Bottom