How to restore from Macrium Reflect backup to new PC with Windows 11 or Windows 10 - and keep your programs and files - Zinstall
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How to restore from Macrium Reflect backup to new PC with Windows 11 or Windows 10 – and keep your programs and files

Got a backup created using Macrium Reflect, and now you need to restore it to a new computer? If you do it manually, you’ll only get your files. However, in this article, we’ll learn how to restore not just your files, but also your programs, profiles, settings, emails, accounts and all the rest – from the Macrium Reflect image backup to a different computer.

Let’s see how!

Mount the Macrium Reflect backup to access its files and contents

Windows XP

The first step to recovery is performing what’s called a “mount” of the Macrium backup file on the new computer. This operation allows to gain access to the backup’s contents, and thus to perform a restore. Here is how to do it.

  1. Make sure Macrium Reflect is installed on the computer. If it isn’t, you can download it from Macrium here.
  2. Once Macrium is installed, launch it and switch to the Restore tab. Then, click “Open an image or backup file in Windows explorer” on the left.
  3. Browse for the folder you have your backup in.
  4. Macrium will then show the drives inside your backup (such as “(C:)”). Click OK to complete the mount process and open your backup drive.
  5. After a brief waiting time, your backup will be mounted as a virtual drive.

Good job! At this point, you can already locate your old drives in Windows files and folders, and even copy some of your files to your new computer. Of course, manual copy of files is not what we are after – let’s see how to do a complete restore, including programs and settings, and to do it automatically.

Recover your files, settings, profile and programs from Macrium Reflect backup

Now that we have our backup accessible on the new computer, we’ll use Zinstall Migration Kit Pro to recover programs, settings files, emails, personalization, settings, documents and all the rest. The process is automatic and you won’t have to hunt everything down manually. Here is how to do it:

    1. On the new computer, run Zinstall Migration Kit Pro (you can download it here)

Windows XP

  1. Choose the “Moving from another hard drive” scenario (the “hard drive” here is our mounted Macrium backup)
  2. The Kit will automatically detect the mounted backup. Confirm the selection, and press Next.
  3. If you want to only recover some of the programs, or some of the files, use the Advanced menu to select which ones you want. If you want to just recover everything, simply click Next to continue.
  4. You will be presented with a quick summary of what’s about to be recovered – press “Go” to start the process.

That’s it – that’s how you restore a Macrium Reflect backup to a new computer!

Video – recovering programs, settings and files to a new computer