Retrieve folder from WindowsImageBackup without original PC

Question

I've had to RMA a faulty laptop recently and backed up everything apart from 1 file that I forgot about.

The file will still exist when I get my laptop back as I took a full C: drive image using the Windows7 'create system image' backup. So I should be able to restore the folder WindowsImageBackup assuming I get the same laptop spec back!

Can I get access to the folder in the image before my laptop is returned? Eg is it possible to recover the image to a virtual machine using VMware Player or are there any alternative ways of doing this?

Answer 1

Inside that folder, you'll see a very large .vhd file with a GUID filename.
This file is a disk image of your original computer.

You can double-click that disk image on any Windows 7/8 computer to mount it as a virtual disk and explore its contents.