0

I am trying to access some individual files from a Windows 7 backup created by means of the built-in Save and Restore functionality, from within Windows 7.

The backup data is stored in .vhd files, in particular a 160 GB file. I can attach it in disk management as described here.

The disk is shown as an NTFS volume and mounted to a drive letter, but there is no preview on the occupied/empty disk size. When I try to open the drive in Windows Explorer, I am just getting the error message Access Denied.

I have tried opening the .vhd file with 7zip as described in another question, but 7zip claims there is nothing in there except for a file named disallowedcert.stl of some 10 MB.

Furthermore, it does not seem to be a permission problem, as suggested in another forum thread. The .vhd file belongs to the current user of the computer and there are no access restrictions to them or the local administrators, as far as I can tell from the file properties.

What is going on and how can I open that .vhd file?

O. R. Mapper
  • 820
  • 4
  • 14
  • 29
  • Sounds like you don’t have the permissions to view or even list the contents of the root directory of the drive. Ownership of the file isn’t a concern, even with read access, mounting would be possible. Please be kind when responding to this comment.... – Ramhound Feb 14 '18 at 23:32
  • @Ramhound: How do I change (or even just confirm) that? – O. R. Mapper Feb 14 '18 at 23:34
  • No suggestions on that front; Windows 10 has native mounting capabilities of vhd files – Ramhound Feb 14 '18 at 23:36
  • @Ramhound: So has Windows 7, it would seem (via disk management). Or are there any restrictions to that? I'll try getting that file onto a Win10 machine, though. – O. R. Mapper Feb 14 '18 at 23:38
  • When mounted can diskpart (command line utility) see the partitions? – Ramhound Feb 14 '18 at 23:47
  • @Ramhound: diskpart shows a partition in the mounted `.vhd` file. – O. R. Mapper Feb 20 '18 at 12:30
  • @Ramhound: Wait, what error? diskpart doesn't show an error, it just shows that there is a large partition on the mounted drive. Yet, I seem to remain unable to look into that partition e.g. with Windows Explorer. – O. R. Mapper Feb 20 '18 at 12:58
  • I could have sworn your comment indicated there was an error. – Ramhound Feb 20 '18 at 15:21

0 Answers0