Vista - System Image - Extract Files Using Virtual PC 2007

   Information

When you create a system image, Vista creates a Virtual Hard Disk VHD file that contains all of your files. This will show you how to add this VHD file as a drive in a virtual machine using Virtual PC 2007 to manually extract and restore specific files of your choice from the system image instead of doing the default full system image recovery.

   Note

System images are saved in this format:
(selected-backup-location's-drive-letter)\WindowsImageBackup\(your computer name)\Backup (year-month-day) (time)

For example, if your computer name is Vista-PC, your backup image location is on hard disk or partition (network or local) D: , and you backed up on September 14th 2008 at 4:39:45 AM (it uses 24 hour time), then that system image VHD file will be located in the folder below.

D:\WindowsImageBackup\Vista-PC\Backup 2009-09-14 043945

   Warning

You will need to have Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 installed, and already have a virtual machine created that has Virtual Machine Additions installed on with a share folder setup between the guest (virtual machine) and host (your computer) operating systems. You will be using this virtual machine to add (mount) the VHD as a secondary drive to, and extract the files you want to the share folder to access by your Vista (host OS).

1. Run Virtual PC 2007 SP1.

2. Select a virtual machine that meets the WARNING box requirements at the top, and click on Settings. (See screenshot below)

3. In the left pane, select Hard Disk 2 (one with NONE). In the right pane, select (dot) Virtual hard disk file, and click on the Browse button. (See screenshot below)

4. Navigate to the location of the Vista system image VHD file, select it, and click on Open. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: See the NOTE box at the top of the tutorial to see where to find your system image VHD file at.

5. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

6. Select the same virtual machine from step 2 above, and click on Start. (See screenshot below)

7. In the virtual machine, open the Start Menu and double click on Computer. You will now see the system image VHD listed as another hard drive with a drive letter (ex: F: ) in Computer. (See screenshot below)

8. You can now extract the files that you want from the system image drive (ex: F: ) in the virtual machine, and copy them to the share folder under Network Location in Computer. (See screenshot above)

9. When finished, you can now open the same share folder at it's location in your Vista host (not in virtual machine) instead to restore them back to your Vista C: drive.