Please help to recover vmdk and vmx files?

[kevintran6227]

Problem: "missing operating system" on ESXi 4.0. Used ESXi 4.0 installer disc and did a repair "VMware tech support told to" and it deleted all the partition tables and drive became Unallocated/Free Space. All data is resided on this drive.

Tried:

1. Boot into Ubuntu Live CD

2. Created new partition with Free Space using fdisk

3. Tried to mount but it didn't mount.

All data with vmx and vmdk files are in this one drive.

PLEASE HELPPPPPPP!!!!

[idle-jam]

do you have vmware support? i would suggest creating a call with them as any wrong move would make the whole vmdk unusable ..

[petedr]

I would agree, you want to be carefuly, vmware support maybe the best bet.

www.thevirtualheadline.com

[kevintran6227]

They said go to Ontrack but cost too much we are such a small organization don't have that kind of money. Basically we are done:smileycry:..if there are no other options left?

[AureusStone]

Have a read of this doco.  Would have been more useful before you attempted to repair your installation.

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsp40u1_i/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=setup/t_recover_the_esxi_4.0...

If you added the disk correctly using fdisk there is probably not a lot more you can do.  I presume you followed one of the guides on the internet and marked the partition using the correct hex code for VMFS.  If you mounted it incorrectly you could have caused more issues.

I know it is too late, but backups are really important.  If you have data that is worth anything always backup.

[kevintran6227]

Thanks for the reply. VMWare support team confirmed to go ahead and choose Repair option...**sighed****