I can mount a Windows backup file but can only view the last backed up files

[edutech4schools]

I am using Windows backup in 2012r2 for data drive backup. If I do a restore using the built in backup GUI I can choose any data to restore a file back to. A really handy feature of Windows backup is being able to take the backup USB drive, plug it into any modern PC were you can mount the backup files in Windows explore and browse the files that have been backed up, just like browsing a USB drive.

 

The issue is that when I mount the backup all the files listed are only the files taken in the last back. I know the older files must be present as I can take the same backup files, fire up Windows Backup GUI and choose an older date to restore to.

 

Any ideas how I can get Windows file browser to see the older files.

 

Hope that makes some sense

Thanks

[edutech4schools]

For those interested I have just found this handy info but not had a chance to test yet.

 

To expose a shadow copy and view its contents, you can use the Diskshadow utility. From inside Diskshadow, run the expose command. For example expose {c7ed0406-d157-4bf5-af3c-29223db987a5} p: will expose the shadow copy identified and assign a drive letter of P: which you can then access from Windows Explorer. If you look at it, you will see all the content including any VHD files that were on the drive at the time this backup was taken. You can copy these VHD files to another location if need be or you can mount them to view the contents of previous backups.

 

https://standalonelabs.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/a-closer-look-at-windows-server-backup-and-where-did-my-backup-files-go/

[edutech4schools]

This could be handy but I was able to browse the shadow copy files of a hyper-V guest that had been backed up. I basically restored a single file from the backup image to an earlier version using ShadowExplorer-0.9.