Is recovery of windows system image from old SP4 to new SP4 possible at all?

[zendokan]

Googling the web I have the impression currently you can only recover a "windowsimagebackup" folder created with Windows 10 tools to the same SP4 hardware (ssd, windows license key). For people who have a damaged SP4 and got replacement unit, there is no (easy) way to recover the old programs and data from the damaged SP4.

Is this correct or is there an uneasy way (which I have not found). Some people say make a recovery drive (which you only need if win 10 is not booting anymore, some say copy windowsimagebackup to usb stick (which i also did). But problems remains that on new SP4 the old image is not found wether on network hard drive or usb stick or on the SP4 ssd itself.

So do I have to set up and copy all my data and programs again?

Thanks for your time and advice

 

[zendokan]

So I learned now that Macrium Reflect is a software that can do this. But the problem is I only have the windowsimagebackup folder with the .vhdx files, the old damaged SP4 is already sent in.

Is there anyway to access at least the very big .vhdx files and browse them for single files? Windows Explorer did not work, virtual box maybe or macrium or Acronis browse such files?

Or anyone knows another hack to make win10 think that the backup file is the correct one for a new SP4. Probably when using windows image it looks for the old signature "DESKTOP-QFJQ0P2", my new SP4 has different name.

 

[jnjroach]

You can mount the .vhdx file from Disk Manager under the Action Menu then it will look like another disk...

Also, there is a PowerShell utility that will convert a VHD to a WIM that then can be applied to a device:

Script Convert-WindowsImage.ps1 — WIM2VHD for Windows 10 (also Windows 8 and 8.1)

But this is an advanced deployment option.

 

[zendokan]

Thanks, at least I could browse the backup this way and copy some data