Search within backup on new pc

Hello, I hope someone would be able to help me restoring a backup. It is

a little different than any previous threads I could find. My laptop HDD

started to slow down due to overheating. I was able to run a backup,

although it took several hours to complete. Shortly afterwards my HDD

failed and I replaced it with a new one. After reinstalling Vista and my

other programs, I tried to locate the last backup on an external hard

drive. I can see the backup and it appears to be the correct size and

content, but when I try to restore it, I can only see two other backups

done about three months earlier. When I try to restore the most current

backup, it gives me an error message, that the file can't be found.

There is one file in particular that I need in the newest backup. Even

if I can somehow search the contents of the latest backup and pull that

file out of it, it would be of tremendous help.

Thank you!

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Boston