Windows System image and VHD problem.

Okay, I have Windows Pro 64, and use it terribly. I'm always testing software and whatnot and usually get my install messed and mucked up in a few months, so I've in love with System Imaging, because I just restore it and everything's good.
I have my Image on another partition on separate drive, for safety, but stupidly, I quick formatted the partition(!), but, luckily I managed to get my image back, but not in the format Windows readily sees (WindowsImage), but in its native format, .vhd.
Upon reading Microsoft socials forums, "You wouldn’t be able to restore VHD files using backup and restore center. You can mount the image by following the steps below", apparently Windows wont see that format as a System Image backup and I cant restore from that image, which sucks and makes no sense (Microsoft can really be amateurs at this stuff). My question is": Does this apply to ALL ways of restoring the image (Native restoring before boot and pressing F8 and System disk restoring)?
In the past I have ran into problems with System restore trying to restore a corrupt image, and messing things up badly, and this being a seemingly corrupt image, I'm wondering if any of you have tried to do this and ran into problems, or if really cant be done. I've read that Acronis CAN do it, if I want to buy their True Image Home, which I don't, but that's why it doesn't make sense that Windows cant do this natively.

Bigger,
If you recovered the entire set generated by the Win 7 Backup, then you will be able to restore. The VHD is the image but the other info re partition location and size is not part of the VHD which can be mounted onto any media anywhere.

By mounting the VHD, then you will be able to recover everything that is a part of the image but you will not be able to "restore" your operating system.

Bare Foot Kid said:

I enjoyed seeing someone that formatted their image calling MS ...

"Microsoft can really be amateurs at this stuff"

Oh please, who hasn't formatted something they meant to keep? :)
I just found it odd that MS seems to introduce features that work only in perfect conditions, which is opposite of when those features would be used! I realize the "shell" is a valuable part of the .vhd image, but well i realized too late!

karlsnooks said:

By mounting the VHD, then you will be able to recover everything that is a part of the image but you will not be able to "restore" your operating system

Thanks i figured that part out, but I image not because of data lost, but because of data corruption, so to speak. My machine isn't my main setup, so I don't care much about what gets messed up, but I just hate having to reformat and installing all the software and then tweaking it to perfection, get me? Nonetheless i just reinstalled and did the routine,

And to add: I mentioned Acronis True Image Home (2011) before, DO NOT USE THIS SOFTWARE! It has a major bug that, of course, they wont admit to fault, but posted a hotfix for(!!). When you install (I tried the trial) it takes over Windows Backup, which isn't so wonderful. But when you uninstall, it screws your registry so that you don't get Windows Backup back! You can click on it till your fingers turn blue, nothing happens. They have posted a registry fix/edit for it, but it didn't work for me, and didn't seem to work on most that complained about it in their forums. Huge issue, because if you hadn't made a backup of any type before you installed Acronis, you either have to buy Acronis in order to backup, or you hope they make a fix that works, cause you aint backing up jack if you uninstall it!

B166er,

Although Acronis has their fans here, I am not one of them. I ran across your experiences. No version of Acronis has played well with Win 7, from my experience, and yes, I tried the latest to see if they had improved.

I only have direct experience with Acronis and Win 7 Backup and Restore.
The former I will never recommend and the later always.

There are a couple of other backup programs which are recommended by others but since I have zero experience with them then can give no evaluation.

karlsnooks said:

B166er,

Although Acronis has their fans here, I am not one of them. I ran across your experiences. No version of Acronis has played well with Win 7, from my experience, and yes, I tried the latest to see if they had improved.

I only have direct experience with Acronis and Win 7 Backup and Restore.
The former I will never recommend and the later always.

There are a couple of other backup programs which are recommended by others but since I have zero experience with them then can give no evaluation.

I'll stick with Windows Backup. I do like it and its never really let me down, I just had an issue this time. But yeah, that Acronis thing is nuts. Really sucky deal there.