Windows Vista and Old Data

My computer died today, as in the hard drive crashed.  I concealed my happy dance as best I could, because I've been wanting to buy a new computer anyway.  We went to Sam's Club and found one I liked for less than I had intended to spend, with a 24" monitor.

So, I get it all set up with no problem, hook my external hard drive up to it, and go about trying to restore the files I had backed up from my old computer.  But wait, will Windows Vista open .bkf backup files from earlier versions of Windows?  Surely, it will!  To make an operating system that's not reverse compatable with backup files from the last version would just be... evil, and of course, Microsoft's not evil, is it?

You guessed it, Windows Vista won't open .bkf files from the backup utility that was in my Windows XP machine.  After a good deal of searching, I found that I could download a Vista version from microsoft, but I also had to make some other adjustments to the operting system's settings.  No problem.  I download it.  It's not for the right type of processor.  I go back and download the correct version. 

It runs!  It's able to access the backup file off of my portable hard drive!  I start to extract the files!  The program crashes.

I start it up again, and begin extracting the files.  The program crashes.

I try it a third time, again, with no success.

Anyone have any ideas?