Recovering single file from old Time Machine Backup

I see many questions/answers that almost address my issue, but not quite, so I'm starting a new post. If this has been answered somewhere and I missed it feel free to just refer me to the correct post!
I recently had to do a full System Restore from a Time Machine backup. The good news is that it worked beautifully and I'm using my iMac like nothing ever happened. When Time Machine tried to run (post restore), it said I didn't have enough space on my external drive. Okay, based on other posts here I see that it won't just continue from the old TM backups and it's starting "anew"...got it.
The old TM backups must still be on that drive because it shows 144GB USED and 100GB AVAIL of my 250GB external drive. Okay, again based on other posts I know that I could just wipe the drive clean and start fresh...BUT...
I restored to my TM backup of 8/24....now I realize that there are one or two files that I at some point stopped having TM backup and now I want to get them back (the whole point of TM, right?)...I figured since it's "holding" that space on my external drive, the old backups are intact and I just need a way to get to them to pull them back to my restored system, then start TM from scratch.
I can't get at the old TM backups. I've tried:
1) Using the "Browse other Time Machine Backups..." feature. It doesn't see the old TM backup...sees the drive, but nothing on it.
2) Browsing the drive in "Finder"...nothing shows up...just the attempted NEW backup.
3) Connecting the external drive to an entirely different Mac and trying to browse the disk in Finder OR use the Browse other Time Machine Backups...still nothing.
So I have a 250GB drive that shows 144GB used, but no way to even view what that is....am I out of luck? Or would something in DiskUtility or a 3rd party software (DiskWarrior) help in this situation?
Is there any way to go pull one or two files from my old TM backup?

Exactly Glenn....I did nothing to the hard drive after the "restore from Time Machine Backup"...
I've never used the Migration Assistant...have to look into that.
I didn't want to be argumentative since I was the relative newbie asking for help, but I HAVE to believe that if I didn't write over the files (i.e. reformat the drive), AND the Finder is recognizing that there are 144 GB USED, the files must be there, untouched....
The urgency isn't there for me anymore, I've already re-created the one doc I wanted to recover and the other file was my Windows XP virtual machine file...(I didn't want to have to re-install Windows from scratch - but I did)....so maybe this is a good time to "play" with that drive while I can afford to lose everything on it!

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