Recover Folders of Files from System Image?

Uni · 07 Mar 2017

It looks like I have made an error by creating a System Image instead of Backing Up my folders and files. I admit to being a bit confused as to what the difference is (or was) between the two.

Following a BSoD (although I could access Advanced Options, and could boot up via Start Up Settins, option 7) my Windows 10 Pro OS had quite a few errors that were taking too long to fix (Office 365 programs would not function, error codes etc).

I created an System Image folder (WindowsImageBackup) on an external hard drive, 5 days ago, and finally re-installed Windows 10 Pro yesterday.

Having just read the "How to Create a System Image in Windows 10" tutorial, in this forum:
"When you restore your computer from a system image it is a complete restoration, you cannot choose individual items to restore and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with the contents of the system image."

I thought I would check with Tenforums first, after looking at:

How to access a system image and restore individual files using Windows 10's native VHD support - TechRepublic

The webpage mentions that specific files can be retrieved by using Windows 10's native VHD support, although the author loses me as I read through (and try to make sense of) it.

Is there a way to retrieve folders and files from a System Image?
The System Image was made when the Win 10 Pro OS had errors with it, so I presume these errors would return, if I restored the image.

Maybe there is a link to a similar question in this forum?

Thanks in advance.
Geoff.

Bree · 07 Mar 2017

Uni said:

I thought I would check with Tenforums first ... Maybe there is a link to a similar question in this forum?

Better than that, there's a whole Tutorial on it.
VHD or VHDX File - Mount or Unmount in Windows 10

Once you have mounted the .vhdx file from the WindowsImageBackup folder (it's a couple of folders down) then you get a new drive letter in File explorer and you can explore the virtual drive as you wish. There's a .vhdx file for each partition in the system image, most likely the largest one is for your C: drive (the small ones are the system and recovery partitions).

Uni · 07 Mar 2017

Looks great, hopefully it is fool-proof!
Would you suggest Option 1, 2 or 3?

Bree · 07 Mar 2017

Uni said:

Looks great, hopefully it is fool-proof!
Would you suggest Option 1, 2 or 3?

I'd go for Option 2, you can chose to mount it 'read-only' with that method - even more fool-proof :)

Uni · 07 Mar 2017

Great. Thanks. Will look at, in a few minutes.

Uni · 08 Mar 2017

Hi. I (think) have mounted the external hard drive, which was given the drive letter "G". There was a choice of three .vhdx files, so I chose the largest one (268 GB) but the disk icon it is not highlighted in blue (see first pic) and I cannot access folders/files (see second pic).

How should I proceed?

Bree · 08 Mar 2017

Is your 'Disk 3 (basic, 452.24GB, Read-Only)' the virtual drive you have mounted? Is Disk 4 another one?

Note that Disk Management shows your Disk 3 has a name (Acer) but doesn't have a drive letter yet. In order to assign it a drive letter using Disk Management it would have to be mounted as read/write, mounted read-only those options are greyed-out. To keep it mounted as read-only but still be able to assign it a drive letter, mount it using Disk Management then use DISKPART from a 'Command Prompt (Admin)'.

In the following example I have mounted a vhdx image of my recovery partition as read-only. It has no drive letter. The partition I want to give a letter is partition 2 on disk 2. Your disk/partition numbers will be different, use Diskpart's LIST DISK and LIST PARTITION commands to find the numbers you should use.

Code:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DISKPART
Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0
Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: TOSH-L750

DISKPART> LIST DISK
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          465 GB      0 B
  Disk 1    Online          231 GB    19 MB        *
  Disk 2    Online          548 MB   115 MB        *

DISKPART> SELECT DISK 2
Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> LIST PART
  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Reserved            32 MB    17 KB
  Partition 2    Primary            400 MB    32 MB

DISKPART> SELECT PART 2
Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> ASSIGN LETTER=S
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART>

Once your virtual drive has a letter it can be accessed in File Manager. To dismount it right-click on it in 'This PC' and select Eject. The drive letter you assigned should be remembered and allocated to it next time you mount it.

EDIT: I suspect your mounted vhdx is actually drive 4, as it shows some unallocated space (the black part) as do all the vhdx files I have tried mounting.

Uni · 08 Mar 2017

I mounted the largest-sized .vhdx file shown in Pic 4 AttachVHD.
I have re-started computer since I could not get the right-click, Eject option.
Attached is also:

2 DiskManPC only which shows Disk Management without externak hard drive connected.
3 Ext HDD Dir showing the directory structure of the external hard drive which contains the WindowsImageBackup directory
5 DiskManVHD which shows the Disk Management screen following the mount.

I don't know what Acer is in 5 DiskManVHD. I presumed the (G) drive was the drive I wanted. My laptop is an Acer Aspire.

Uni · 08 Mar 2017

I have to leave, for a few hours. Thanks for your continued support. Geoff.

Bree · 08 Mar 2017

Uni said:

I don't know what Acer is in 5 DiskManVHD. I presumed the (G) drive was the drive I wanted. My laptop is an Acer Aspire.

Good, looks like you are almost there.

In your Disk Management image above, Disk 0 is your PC's hard drive, Disk 2 is your external hard drive G: containing the WindowsImageBackup folder and Disk 3 looks like a successfully mounted vhdx file from your G: drive.

Disk 3's 'Acer' partition has no drive letter so you can't see it in File Explorer yet. This time it hasn't been mounted as read-only, so in Disk Management you can right-click on the 'Acer' partition and use 'Change Drive Letter and Paths...' to give it one. Then you will be able to use File Explorer to retrieve files from it. The name Acer looks like something Backup and Restore included when making the system image, it's almost certainly the saved image of you old C: drive.

If you want to mount it read-only you will need to use DISKPART to assign a drive letter (see my earlier post) because the 'Change Drive Letter....' option will be greyed-out in Disk Manager for read-only drives.