Portable drive was changed to VHDX File that I can't open

"Couldn't mount File" error

Machine:

acer Aspire Go 15

Model# N24H7

System Name ACER25

System model Aspire AG15-51P

Device name

Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1334U (1.30 GHz)

Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)

Graphics card Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics (128 MB)

Storage 116 GB of 932 GB used

Device ID

Product ID

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Windows 11 , version 25H2- last update: 2026-07 Preview Update (KB5101684) (26200.8973)Successfully installed on ‎8/‎4/‎2026

                           8-8-26 6:41 PM- THE BIG PROBLEM FOR 2 DAYS WITH 6 DIFFERENT AIs:

"Couldn't mount File" error.

Plug in portable drive- (Z:)-open>3 folders: Offline Drivers Repository, TempBackup(empty-created yesterday per AI but not used), and WindowsImageBackup-double click>Acer Go-double click>Acer Go-double click>4 files and 1 document:Backup, Catalog, Logs, SPPMetadataCache, Mediald>double click Backup File Name: ....................0.vhdx 94+GB.

There are 11 HTML documents that begin with an MS Edge icon at the beginning(that were never there before), and 3 that begin with a drive icon- Hard Disc Image File. One is 94+GB, one is 90+KB and one is 798+KB. AI says the 94+GB is my saved data, saved printer drivers and years of pictures.

Everything I click on brings up an error window titled : "Couldn't mount File". Then goes on to say: "the disk image isn't initialized contains partitions that aren't recognizable or contains volumes that haven't been assigned drive letters. Please use the disc management snap in to make sure that the disk partitions and volumes are in a usable state."

I had the portable drive plugged in when there was a update pending icon on my toolbar and AI said that it had something to do with it.

Before this, I was a able to plug it into my PC, and see everything in a list but now there are 11 HTML documents that begin with an MS Edge icon at the beginning(that were never there before), and 3 that begin with a drive icon- Hard Disc Image File. One is 94+GB, one is 90+KB and one is 798+KB. AI says the 94+GB is my saved data,saved printer drivers and years of pictures.

AI: "The files inside your backup folder are your actual backup data, but they are stored as system-level archive files rather than standard documents. Opening them by double-clicking or forcing them to open in a web browser triggers errors because they are designed to be processed exclusively by the Windows operating system during a recovery procedure."

Then AI, one fresh new browser AI after the other, could not solve the problem for 2 full days- open this hard disc image file.

I may have had backup info saved as well in my personal drive that the last backup saw as the place to go and might have locked it up for that reason?

 Thank you for your time and consideration.