Recovery using vhd files created by Windows Backup

You may have vhd files if you used the Windows Backup utility included into Windows Vista and Windows 7 for backing up the system hard drive.

If you purchased True Image 2013 after using Windows Vista or Windows 7 backup utility, you can recover your system hard drive from those vhd files using True Image 2013.

When you need to recover your system using a vhd backup file, proceed as follows:

  1. Arrange the boot order in BIOS so as to make your rescue media device (CD, DVD or USB stick) the first boot device. See Arranging boot order in BIOS.
  2. Boot from the rescue media and select True Image.
  3. After True Image 2013 starts, click the My Disks link under Recover on the Welcome screen.
  4. Choose the vhd backup file to be used for recovery by its creation date. When the required vhd backup is not shown, click Browse, choose Windows Backup Archives (*.vhd) in the "Files of type" field and locate the backup for recovery.

    Even if the required vhd backup is shown on the screen, after you choose it True Image 2013 may display the following message: "True Image 2013 cannot detect volume 1 of "Backup_Name" archive", where Backup_Name is the name of the chosen backup. This is because disk letters in the standalone True Image 2013 may differ from those in Windows and the path to this backup stored in the metadata information will point to the wrong location. In such case click Browse, choose Windows Backup Archives (*.vhd) in the "Files of type" field and locate the backup for recovery.

  5. At the next step select Recover whole disks and partitions (if it is not selected) and click Next.
  6. Select the system partition at the What to recover step. Usually you will not need to recover the MBR.
  7. Then specify the settings of the selected system partition: location, type (primary, active) and size. When recovering the partition to the original location, you do not need to make any setting changes.
  8. Read the Summary of the recovery operations and then click Proceed.

You can also recover partitions and disks from vhd files while working in Windows. This is preferable for recovering data partitions and disks.