After replacing mother board, Windows cannot find WindowsImageBackup

Win7x64 Home Premium ASUS U56E.
Before I sent my system in for warranty repair, I made a disk image onto external drive. I checked the vhd file out--for example Attach VHD allowed me to read all the files. Then I did a full factory restore and sent it into ASUS. It took two RMA's but finally they fixed the problem by replacing the mother board. I presume it was the same part (but difficult to get info from ASUS).
.
Now I am trying to restore the disk image. After choosing [recover system settings or your computer] -> [Advanced recovery methods] -> [Use a system image created earlier to recover your computer] -. [Skip] -> [Restart] ... "loading files" ... [US language]... I get "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer" an no amount of retry, refresh or anything I can find will help. The disk is mounted and I can navigate to the same .vhd file I saw when I backed up (above).

I read somewhere that if the mother board is changed, windows will act like this.

• If someone knows a way I can restore, I will appreciate it.

I may be willing to settle for attaching the .vhd (as above) and being able to access the backed-up files. But when I try this, it appears that I do not have permission to read them (because of a new mother board?). Windows tells me to use "security" to get access (I am not the Admin but my username has Admin rights). I try this and add my username and wanting only "read and excute" control, in the security tab.. Windows won't do this because the disk is "protected" (I suppose because I attached the vhd with [x]read-only access).

• I am presuming that I can reattach the vhd without [x]read-only access and I might be successful. But here is the second part of my post: If I successfully change the permissions, would this modification to the vhd-file in itself render the file unusable for Windows [system image recovery], in case I was able to find a way to get windows to recognize the vhd file..

Any help would be appreciated.

Cab

Layback Bear said:

Because you state you are not the administrator I suggest you contact the person who is the administrator for help.

Thanks, Layback Bear. This is a home laptop and I am the only user. Sorry for the confusion. When I said I was not the Administrator I meant that I was not logged in as Administrator, but I have admin rights (so MS makes me hit [continue] once in a while to gain them).

Kaktussoft said:

How To Restore Windows 7 from a System Image - How-To Geek

You see the backup on this screen?

Otherwise select "select a system image" and browse to it. What happens exactly?

Thanks, Kaktussoft. Regarding your first post--I can find the SystemImage and attach it (the drive letter is F)--but, as I mentioned, there is a problem with permissions.
.
Regarding your second post--what happens exactly is that the "latest available system image" is blank, and when I try (.) Select a system image.. Windows displays the [Re-image your computer] window and instructs me to connect the drive. But the drive is connected and the list of system images is blank, the [Next] button is greyed out, the [Refresh] button does nothing, and the [Advanced] button gives me the option of 1) searching a network drive or 2) install a driver. But the image is not on a network drive and the external disk driver has already been installed because I can find the system image using [Computer].

-------
I was wondering if this is because the mother-board was changed and windows thinks I am restoring to a different computer.

As I mentioned, I can probably read the files by attaching the vhd, but it looks like I'll need to change permissions, but I am reluctant to modify the vhd file until I find out there is no hope of restoring the system image.

I suppose I could try restoring the backup (not the system image) but I wanted the system image since all programs come installed.

I appreciate everyone's time for my little problem.

Kaktussoft said:

change of motherboard has nothing to do with problem! At least if it's able to find external disk without extra special drivers. Is external drive connected to usb3.0, usb2.0 or eSATA? Don't mess around with vhd yet!

Please post output of #3

DISKPART> list disk
Disk 0 Online 596 GB 1024KB

Only shows my HDD, not the portable disk, which is attached via USB 3.0
I see that from [Computer]. Is this a clue?

The vhd file is not -attached- at this point--If I go back and do that, will it survive the restart? I'll try.

Booting back to windows and using Disk Management to attach, I get drive letter D: size=238GB, disk# 2. I only have one DiskImage. I can go back and see if when I use the recovery disk, if the file is still attached.
When I return, please.