topic Re: Workstation Pro 16 - vmdk/snapshot mess in VMware Workstation Pro Discussions

Workstation Pro 16 - vmdk/snapshot mess

sargehendricks — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 03:33:39 GMT

Hello Everyone,

I have an issue that I have never encountered before, and I am stuck on how to address it.

I have a Windows 10 Pro virtual machine running on a Windows 10 Pro host via Workstation Pro 16. A couple of days ago, an automatic check disk ran and now I have a situation in which 1 vmdk is showing 0 bytes, and another vmdk is completely missing!

original.vmdk - good

original-000001.vmdk - 0 bytes

original-000002.vmdk - good

original-000003.vmdk - missing

original-000004.vmdk - good

I have checked for back-ups, but unfortunately, a certificate was updated on the server side, and my back-up jobs weren't working. That is obviously another issue...

When I first found the problem, the VM would not boot. I rolled back to a valid snapshot, and now the VM boots. My problem at this point is that Workstation throws an error anytime I attempt to delete an old snapshot or create a new snapshot. Since I am certain my vmdks that are either 0 bytes or missing are toast, I am not concerned with spending time trying to recover them. I tried the "vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -R "Path\to\file.vmdk" trick, and it accomplished nothing.

I am wondering if anyone knows how to take a VM that is operating, and effectively clean-up the dependencies on these previous snapshots/files. I would happy if I could simply start creating snapshots from my current state and move forward.

Thank you for your time and assistance!

Re: Workstation Pro 16 - vmdk/snapshot mess

wila — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 10:21:12 GMT

Hi,

Make a full clone of your current VM (menu -> "VM" -> "Manage" -> "Clone" -> follow the wizard, do not create a "linked clone" but instead "full clone" in one of those screens)
Then rename the folder of the original VM before you throw it away to make sure that there are no dependencies left.

There are other ways to resolve your snapshot history, but making a clone does not require any low level steps and diagnostics.

--
Wil

Re: Workstation Pro 16 - vmdk/snapshot mess

sargehendricks — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 18:31:46 GMT

Hello Wil,

Thank you for the quick response!

I attempted your solution, but during the cloning process I received an error that stated "An error occurred while cloning: The file specified is not a virtual disk." It seems that everything I have tried to do, since the chkdsk event, results in an error about the file specified not being a virtual disk. However, I am able to boot the virtual machine.

Any other ideas?

Thanks, again!

Re: Workstation Pro 16 - vmdk/snapshot mess

continuum — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 18:44:06 GMT

If you still can boot the VM do this:
1. power off VM completely
2.add second vmdk - same size or slightly larger than the existing one
3. boot VM into your favorite Linux LiveCD
4. clone disk to disk with ddrescue - like
ddrescue /dev/sda /dev/sdb /tmp/clone.log
5. when that is done replace existing snapshot-chain with the newly created vmdk
6.done

Ulli

Re: Workstation Pro 16 - vmdk/snapshot mess

sargehendricks — Sun, 25 Jul 2021 19:01:43 GMT

Thanks continuum!

I'm attempting that now. Workstation is creating the new vmdk as we speak.

I've never replaced a snapshot chain before, so I'll have to figure out that process. But as of now, nothing else has worked, so I will give it a shot.

Thanks again!