Example apparatus and methods process virtual machine image level backups that may include files that are compressed and files that are not compressed. Example apparatus and methods may produce virtual machine image level backups by selectively compressing some files associated with the image while leaving other files in their uncompressed state. Example apparatus and methods may selectively recover a file or even an entire disk image from an image level backup that may include both compressed files and files that are not compressed. The file recovery or image recovery may be performed at the file level by accessing files in the image and selectively decompressing files that are compressed in the image while passing through files that are not compressed in the image. Different files in a single image may be compressed or decompressed using different techniques.