How can I restore my backup to my Windows 10 computer? Is the file corrupted, if so, how can I fix that?

@Nibblesnarf It's not a zip, but yes, it is one large file. I would have to get back with you with the format as I can't think of it off the top of my head.

@Nibblesnarf it's a vhdx file. No idea what that is! lol

@sweetiepoo Okay, I'll try to look into what that file format is. Depending on how it's created, it may be possible to pull data out of the file manually even if the intended software can't open it. (I did this for a large email archive once, which was admittedly simpler due to being plain text.)

A few more questions: with the vhdx file, do you attempt recovery using some Microsoft proprietary software? Did it prompt you for a password at any point? And when you did try to restore from the backup, did Windows initially recognize it as a non-empty file?

@Nibblesnarf Thank you incredibly so much! To answer your questions, I intend on completely restoring my computer, as when the factory reset was done AFTER my backup, it deleted everything so my computer is like brand new out the box. The computer never did recognize anything as far as a backup. I called Microsoft to help and long story short, after months trying to connect with someone, no one from level 1, 2 or 3 Could. help. I do plan on using Microsoft restore(more on that later). I was never asked for a password. There aren't any on my PC anyway. After the reset, I didn't reset up my password to unlock my computer. Eventually I will, but it was just easier to leave it as is for now until I figure this out. I initially tried to restore about 3 months ago, but as I mentioned, Microsoft was horrible at returning my calls and holding to the time frames they kept giving me.

I have been at this all day trying to figure this out. I was kinda down and out for a while and needed to regroup. Then I went through a phase like oh well. Disappointed but oh well. Then after reading some of you guy's messages I had renewed strength to look into it even though I had already. I googled and cross referenced EVERYTHING. I looked up what that file type was, how to open it, how to mount it, etc. I played around in disk manager, tried assigning files letters, tried a bunch of other things that I personally hadn't tried yet. So I'm not sure after all the experimentation if I fixed it or not, but long story short, I am currently on a screen that says "restoring files". That's something new that the computer didn't even recognize before, so fingers crossed and prayers up! I will let you guys know if it worked or not. Thanks again!

@sweetiepoo That is a promising sign! Let's hope that's all there is to it.

@Nibblesnarf it didn't work, it basically just added back what was on there after the reset. MS did a checkpoint when working on my computer so, really nothing is different. I'll try to keep working on it though. That file says it couldn't mount:

The disk image isn’t initialized, contains partitions that aren’t recognizable, or contains volumes
that haven’t been assigned drive letters. Please use the Disk Management snap-in to make sure
that the disk, partitions, and volumes are in a usable state.

Let me know it you have any other ideas or advice. Thanks so much!

@sweetiepoo That is unfortunate. Back to the drawing board.

This may sound super basic, but you might try following along with a video guide if you haven't already. Mounting/reading from devices ("real" or virtual) can be tricky. Granted, most people trying to recover data like this probably don't know much about this stuff, so I'd expect that the MS software is made to be theoretically easy to use.

Barring an error in the process, there is probably an issue with the virtual disk (vhdx). A more fundamental problem with the computer itself is a remote possibility, which you could check by trying to open the .vhdx on another Windows 10 computer. (Windows 7 and earlier apparently lack some drivers needed to work with .vhdx.)

Since no password was needed to make the .vhdx, it's a safe bet that no encryption is in place. And because it's just a virtual disk (mimicking a real hard drive), it likely didn't compress stuff unless you asked it to. That's good, because encryption and compression seem like the major potential obstacles to manually pulling data out of a corrupted disk image.

If I understood correctly, Windows 10 didn't recognize the vhdx as a proper file before or after the restoration attempt, right? Do you know if it recognized it right after you made it, before sending the computer in?

What exactly happened with your initial attempt? Did you have the computer actively trying to restore from the vhdx when it went to sleep?

A little reading on the file format reveals that a vhdx contains logs to help repair things in the case of corruption. I don't know what the reparation process looks like. There is an external tool claiming to repair corrupted vhdx, though it seems that the free demo only lets you preview without actually restoring... still, it might at least let you check whether the vhdx has readily fixed corruption.

https://www.systoolsgroup.com/hyper-v-recovery.html

@Nibblesnarf Correct, Windows 10 didn't recognize the vhdx as a proper file after nor before the restoration attempt. Right after I made the back up, before sending the computer in I didn't thoroughly check to see what the format was or if the computer recognized the actual back up. I had a tech verify it was on my external hard drive to make sure it took, but they didn't open up anything.
What exactly happened with your initial attempt? So going all the way back to the beginning, no vhdx drive existed. That wasn't until I made the image back up. That's the format it saved it as. It only went to sleep when I was backing it up, not restoring. I did not have the computer actively trying to restore from the vhdx when it went to sleep. It didn't go to sleep during the restore. Thanks again. I appreciate your help.

@sweetiepoo Ah, I see. When you awoke it from sleep mode, did it just continue making the vhdx backup?

@Nibblesnarf honestly, I don't remember. I feel asleep too. I woke my computer up from sleep mode and it was my normal computer screen. I didn't know if it took or not so I called them to check if it had.

@sweetiepoo Okay. I think sleep mode generally shouldn't activate while a user selected program is running. (The screen might lock, but that's a bit different.) And if it did go into sleep mode while the backup software was running, I expect you'd see it when you exited sleep mode, even if some corruption happened as a result. So my best guess is that it finished the backup while you were asleep, and then went into sleep mode soon thereafter.

[i]Maybe[/i] something can go wrong if a computer goes to sleep while an external drive is mounted. I kind of doubt that should be an issue. It's also conceivable that Windows 10 forced a restart to install updates partway through, but I think it's supposed to not do that unless it's idle.

Since vhdx files apparently contain logs to help correct errors, I would recommend looking for whatever means MS included to actually correct them. Failing that, maybe try the free demo version of one of the third party repair tools; that might at least indicate the nature of the problem.

Here's another question: how large is the vhdx file? (Since Windows is apparently confused by the file, you might have to infer this by seeing how much space is free on your external storage device.)

@Nibblesnarf It's like 80. something GB, and I have more than enough free space on my external hard drive. What does this mean? and it's funny bc I wasn't even sleep long. It wasn't overnight. It was more like a quick nap since it was taking so long to back up. I don't think MS knows what they are doing.

@sweetiepoo It's good that the file is large. If it were small (like, a few MB), it probably would have meant that your data simply isn't there - perhaps because it gave up on making the backup after encountering early trouble. There probably would have been nothing to do in this case.

But 80 GB is large, which suggests to me that your data is there. The trouble may just be that something went wrong with headers/metadata, so your computer is confused about how to process it.