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Help with a complete system image restore from VHD files?
Not as simple as the title sounds. Believe me.
To start: I did a complete backup of my system a month ago. I saved it on an external HD. There are three directories: Backup (Date) with two VHD files in this directory, Catalog, SPPMetadataCache and a file entitled MediaID. Well, about a week ago, I was having a hard time logging on to the system. I would get to the password and the system would not allow any keyboard entry and would not respond to Ctrl-Alt-Del. After a few attempts to figurer out the problem, I decided to do an image restore. When attempting this through the Control Panel, system repair disc and Windows 7 Installation disc, nothing worked because none of them recognized the VHD files. (I should add here that this is Windows 7 Ultimate on a two 1 Terabyte drive system in Raid 0 array - ). Well, I reformatted the drives so I now have drive C: and D: and have the absolute minimal installation of Windows 7 Ult. on the computer. In doing some research I found that I could view the files with Windows Virtual Hard Drive and all the files are still there. So, this brings me to the question:
Can I (and if I can, how do I) restore the original backup of one month ago to the system?
I have read that Windows Virtual Hard Drive has a limit of 172 Gb so that might not work as the backup is 214Gb in size. I have downloaded Virtual Box in case I need it. My main concern is to return the system to original configuration (sans the Raid array) without having to re-install all the programs and reconfigure all of the ones I would have to install.
So why should I want to restore versus re-install? I have 20,432 folders and 176,000 files that date back to 1985 and many programs that have been downloaded and modified on this system and just don't want to spend that kind of time. So saying, if you have the answer or can direct me to it (I did a search without success on this specific problem), I would very much appreciate it.
Don