BMR: W7 can't find Image on INTERNAL HDD, can browse to it

My SSD died. No problem, have a backup from yesterday--full system backup was set up months ago and updated. Within Windows "Backup and Restore", I can see the Image and restore files from it, but not the whole OS. I can browse to the folder and see "D:\WindowsImageBackup\BLACKTOWER\". Inside that folder is:

• Backup 2015-08-27 135903\
• Catalog\
• SPPMetadataCache\
• MediaID.

Under "Backup 2015-08-27 135903" exists two .vhd files, one 51MB and one 76GB and four .XML files. It looks like everything's in order and a new install of Windows can find the Image and treat it as such, but can't restore everything (like programs, settings, tweaks, etc). So I need to use Windows Recovery.

...which can't find anything. I get the error:

Windows cannot find a system image on this computer.

Attach the backup hard disk or insert the final DVD from a backup set and click Retry. Alternately, close this dialog for more options.

That said, I can browse to the folder in Command Prompt. I can click to the folder when searching for drivers--so the D: drive is mounted and recognized and clearly doesn't need drivers. But Restore refuses to see it, though Windows itself can.

How can I do a Bare Metal Restore under these restraints? I just want my blasted PC back up and running, and this was supposed to be the "easy" option for restore =(. I can find all sorts of help for backups on remote or USB backups, but none for issues reading an image on another internal HDD.

EDIT: Under D:\ root, there are three items that pertain to this image. They are:

• BLACKTOWER (image file)
• WindowsImageBackup (folder)
• MediaID.bin

Attempting to move BLACKTOWER to a different drive also moves the other two, so they're all related. It also means they're all existent, and I'm just further confused as to why Windows 7 can see this image file but Windows Recovery cannot.