A NANDROID backup is a backup of your system + data taken via the device’s NAND memory. The backups are saved in your device’s internal/external storage. It can be easily done via CWM or TWRP recovery. You can still create these backups without a working recovery mode on your phone using Orange backup which uses the Online nandroid backup script.
Nandroid backups may not work always. The restoration might not be successful if there is a md5 mismatch, but there is a solution to it – you can skip the md5 check. But that is not the solution always, if a backup wasn’t created properly, no data will be restored on your device from the nandroid backup you took. It may be because the boot.img might not have been backed up properly. In such cases, you lose all your apps, smses and call logs and the nandroid backup is of no use.
Though you may not be able to restore the nandroid backup via recovery mode, you can still restore  your apps and other data without entering into recovery mode. The nandroid backup usually contains all system apps, system data, user data, user apps (including call logs and sms threads) and the boot.img. While you can not restore the boot.img  (kernel), you can restore other data on your phone simply by using an app – Nandroid manager. I’m serious about the fact that you don’t need a recovery mode on your phone.
The app is of great use for people who frequently switch ROMs just like me. Who loves tapping a button every time an app is restored using Titanium Backup or ES File Explorer? Why not get a one-click restore app like Nandroid manager?



Nandroid Manager is the ultimate tool for your to manage all your nandroid backup stuff, thanks to the following features:

• View basic info about your nandroid backups.
• Explore contents of nandroid backup.
• Extract files from nandroid backups.
• Support for yaffs2.
• Rename backup.
• Compress backup to zip.
• Delete backup.
• Verify and regenerate MD5 hashes for backups.
• Restore Apps+Data from backup.
• Restore Text Messages from backup.
• Restore Call Logs from backup.
• Restore WiFi Access Points from backup (Pro).
• Restore Bluetooth Data from backup (Pro).
• Restore User Word Dictionary from backup (Pro).
• Restore Browser Data from backup (Pro).
• Restore Nandroid Backup.
• Flash new recovery.
• Fix permissions tool.

The pro version of the app lets you restore all those data that you might not be able to restore using any other app and hence the developer gets his share for doing that. Nandroid Manager currently supports nandroid backups created by TWRP and Clockworkmod (v5.xx and v6.xx) based recoveries.
It is good to see that the developers of Nandroid manager have planned some great features to be implemented in their future releases like restoring the home screen with widgets, conversion of backups between TWRP and CWM and also, exporting data from one device to other, something that Koush’s Helium app does.