Unable to retrieve files to new PC - My Book Essential

My laptop crashed and my back up files are on my My Book Essential.  I want to move the files to my desktop has my laptop won’t be repaired anytime soon.  I installed the SmartWare and can see 127gb of files, but I’m not able to retrieve the files or move them to my desktop.  I’ve tried through SmartWare, the 127gb show up as additional files on the Home tab and nothing appears when I go to the Retrieve tab.  I’ve tried going through My Computer > My Book > WindowsImageBack > Laptop-XPS.  I see the VDH file, but I can’ t do anything with it.

Any suggestions how to retrieve files and get them on my desktop?

Thanks!

Sometimes you need another backup to find the old one http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-for-PC/data-restore/m-p/161586/highlight/true#M5703
Joe

Thanks for replying Joe_S.

I ran the backup, but the old files are still unaccessable.  I tried using SmartWare and it will only allow me to retrieve the files I just backed up.  I then went into the drive itself and in the WD_SmarWare folder and no luck.  Only the new files I just backed up.  Any other suggestions I can try?

So i have the new harddrive for my laptop, which the external harddrive originally backed up.  Installed Smartware and still unable to retreive the data.  The external harddrive still does not make the laptops data available.  When using Smartware it only shows my desktops recently backed up data.  Any suggestions?