Restoring Backup from Windows 10

[ABHenry]

Dear Friends hope all is well.

I'm trying to view the backup I made from an External hardrive before I upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7.
There are some photos that I'd like to find and restore or at least view them and take a screenshot.
You'll see a couple of the issues in the attachements. 
I have never done a backup like this and decided to later view it.  
There's a Permissions Issue for some reason as well whenever I try to view anything like Ralph VW1.
Please advise.   As always your expertise and instructions are very much appreciated.
Have a pleasant evening and I do HOPE to hear from you soon. I'm stuck
Sincerely, Raphael

[Huffer]

So when you say backup is it just files you cut and pasted onto an external hard drive from Windows 7 or was it a whole "backup" using the Windows 7 backup app which you then extracted? The files probably retain the credentials (ownership) they had in Windows 7. This tutorial kind of explains the process and you need to make your current Windows 10 user identity the owner of the file you want to open or at least give yourself read-write access. 

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-change-ownership-of-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/

[ABHenry]

Great to hear from you! Thank You!
It was an entire backup.
How To?
"you need to make your current Windows 10 user identity the owner of the file you want to open or at least give yourself read-write access. "
I won't have to do this for every single file or whatever I HOPE! At a glance it looks to be a PITA. I'm primarily interested in one photo. But I can't recall what I labeled it as?
Sincerely, Ralphie

[Huffer]

You should be able to define permissions at the folder and not the single file level. Just check the box to apply it to subfolders and contained files. 

[ABHenry]

Dear Huffer, Thank you.
Been over 2 hours screwing around w this and I cannot get it open anything that's in the Backup listed.
The back up of coarse we made when I machine was still in the Windows 7 OS thinking I would simply open it once I got Windows 10 installed,
Don't know what the issue(s) may be but I'm about ready to give up.
Please help.
Best, Ralph

[Huffer]

Windows 10 still has that legacy Windows 7 backup tool available and I believe you have to use that to open and restore backups made from Windows 7. 

[ABHenry]

Please tell us something,
Do you NEED to create yet another Backup onto an External HDD other than the one your using of Windows7 from Windows 10 and or a series of DVD's  which I don't have and don't plan to buy anytime soon.
Grazie

[Huffer]

I do not understand this question. You have the backup (.vhd) you made with Windows 7 which I assume is housed on an external hard drive. This is a bit out there but if I ever have a permissions problem with something created in Windows I just use a Linux installation to browse it as Linux just shrugs off Windows made permissions and will open the file. 

[ABHenry]

To create a system image backup in Windows 10, you can use the built-in System Image Backup tool. This tool is still included in Windows 10, but it is deprecated and Microsoft recommends using a thi...

[Huffer]

Well that system image backup may be deprecated but still works. You can make a system image backup from Windows 10 or even 11 using that tool and reinstall a fully bootable cloned image onto a new hard drive with it from the Windows 10 or 11 installer. Recall the app both is a backup and a restore tool. It will relocate the backed up files to a new Windows installation either into their original place or some other location you pick. The restored files should be accessible using the identity of the installation to which they are restored.