Making a System Image Over a Network (help with .VHD files)

[Keboose]

I have a D-Link DNS-323 RAID enclosure, over a wired/wireless home network, with two 1TB hard drives (so 1TB with a backup.) I set up a 500 GB dynamic Virtual Hard Drive on it, and backed up a system image of my Windows 7 Home Premium Laptop (about 186 GB used in total.) The next day, I tried to mount the VHD file, to check the contents, but got this error: "The version does not support this version of the file format." I thought I had found a workaround to the lack of network support for backups, but I don't know what's wrong here. I heard somewhere that the backup process makes a VHD file, is that the problem? a virtual hard drive within another? is it the fact that the virtual drive I made dynamically expands? or is it something else? I'll only consider other software if I'm convinced that this precedent is not an option (I've already tried several.) Answers would be appreciated!