Advice needed for finding files

[MarkEMarkEMark]

Due to 3 separate unlikely disasters, I have deleted something important.

>>> (you can freely skip this history)
- I got a new PC and made a VMWare virtual machine out of the old one to easily access on my new PC. This is for a license of some obscure software that is no longer supported, but still has the fixed machine license mechanism in place. A reinstall on the new PC does not work for this software.
- I put this VM on my backup drive for transfer, and then copied it to my new PC.
- I stupidly deleted on the backup drive (but that was all I did - it is untouched otherwise and the drive works well)
- I made a snapshot of the VM and upgraded it to VM17, removing now unused real world drivers to make the VM run smoothly
- I checked it all worked, and deleted the snapshot
- I fired it up and it was irretrievably broken! Maybe because VM17 is brand new, there is a bug somewhere. The VM is useless now.
<<< (history over)

I want to retrieve the untouched, but deleted VM from the backup drive.

I have a fully licensed R-Studio 5 for a long time ago and made a scan (10TB, so took ages). I understand about leaving the drive alone and putting scans etc. on another drive.

It can't find the files.

I got the demo of R-Studio 9 and made another scan, and it can find the folder but *not* the disk (.vmdk) and machine (.vmx) file
Annoyingly, it finds loads of old long deleted VMs of a larger size!!

I see that there are loads of versions of possible drives beyond the main one - "Recognized****" but each one takes ages before I can look at it, and there are lots and lots of them.

- Does anyone have any ideas why it can't find the files in the main "Recognized", even though it can find older files?
- Are there any tips for finding my .vmx / .vmdk files?
- Are there any tips for seaching all the other "Recognized" - it would take weeks, the way I'm doing it.

Thanks for listening!

P.S. It's not an SSD - it's a 10TB Seagate Ironwolf

[MarkEMarkEMark]

I forgot to say in my 'history' that the real disaster was my original PC getting it's M.2 drive statically shocked at the time I took the HDD out - which is why that is no longer there.

[Alt]

Can I see a screenshot of the Devices/Disks with the scanned drive?