Cant start VM on Vmware Workstation 15.5.2

[VirtualM123]

Cant start VM

I got Error   The file specified is not a virtual disk.

Please Help !!

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

as a first step, please run dir *.* /one > filelist.txt in the VM's folder, and attach the resulting filelist.txt to your next reply.

André

[VirtualM123]

Attached please review

[a_p_]

What happened, and what did you try so far?

• several "romang-lap-s###.vmdk" files are corrupted (zero bytes in size)
• there's a "romang-lap-flat.vmdk" file which is unusual for VMware Workstation
• the "romang-lap.vmdk" descriptor file is way too small to reference all of the "romang-lap-s###.vmdk" files

Do you have a recent backup?

André

[VirtualM123]

No ,I don't have backup

the flat file because I run vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -c -s 2GB -a lsisas1068 -t 2  "myvmdk.vmdk"

[a_p_]

Ok, so that's going to be kind of a challenge.

What we have:

• several corrupted .vmdk files
• a lost/overwritten descriptor .vmdk file
• all older vmware.log files are overwritten
• virtual disk created using a previous VMware Workstation version (the 2GB sparse has changed)
• no backup

What I need to know is:

• what was/is the virtual disk's exact provisioned size?
• has the virtual disk been created with that size, or has it been resized/increased over time?
• is this a VM that has been converted from a physical system?
• what guest OS / file system is installed on the virtual disk?

Please download dsfok.zip from http://faq.sanbarrow.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=47&id=111&artlang=en, extract the executables, run the below command in the VM's folder, then compress/zip all "xxx-....bin" files and attach the .zip archive to a reply post.

for %i in (*-s???.vmdk) do @dsfo.exe "%i" 0 1536 "xxx-%~ni.bin"

Note: The command extracts just the header information (metadata) from the .vmdk files, i.e. no user data.

André

[VirtualM123]

1.exact provisioned size 217G

2.created with that size and not increased or resized

3.yes from P2V

4. Windows 10

[a_p_]

1.exact provisioned size 217G

That size would result in 109 sparse files, but the file listing that you've provided earlier shows 120 sparse file. So it must be something around 238-239GB. Anyway, it's important to know the exact size to be able to recreate the descriptor file as well as replacements for the zero bytes file. That's why I was asking for the metadata files.

André

[VirtualM123]

I attached files dsfo info

[a_p_]

I've recreated the descriptor file and the stub files for the zero bytes files.

After replacing the files in the VM's folder with those from that attached archive, you should be able to access the virtual disk. However, keep in mind that due to the missing data from the corrupted .vmdk files, you may not be able to recover all of the guest files.

I recommend that rather to power on the VM, use the Map virtual disk option from VMware Workstation to map the virtual disk in read-only mode to your host OS.

André