Recovering data from vmfs extens partitions

[Ovidiut]

Hello,

I have tried to make an upgrade on my server from ESXi 5.0 to 5.5. Something went wrong with the update so I did a fresh install of 5.5 version.

The problem is: I had a vmfs extend partition over 4 physical disks. After the installation I can't see the old datastore(even if the disks are mounted), I've search a while and understood that metadata's for all the disks  was stored on the first disk, where now is installed the new ESXi. Can I recover the data from the rest of the disks?

Please give me an advice with this,

Thank you!

[continuum]

Hi
did the setup of 5.5 overwrite the original first datastore ?
After the new installation - did you do anything with the first datastore like create new VMs ?

Are you missing thin or thick provisioned vmdks on the other 3 volumes ?

[Ovidiut]

Yes, the setup overwrite the original datastore, because it has been installed on the first disk. I've created some VM's . I used thin provisioning for all the vmdks.

[EMILY32]

Hi

Welcome to the communities.

Ans is yes you can recover the data , as there are many recover tools are available .

Before that please share your storage details .

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

[continuum]

> as there are many recover tools are available .

Can you name a recovery tool that claims it can handle this use-case ?

[Ovidiut]

I have tried to mount the partitions with a Linux Live CD + vmfs-tools, but without success.

[continuum]

which version of vmfs-fuse did you try ?
only the latest one has experimental support for extents

[Ovidiut]

I have tried with the last version 0.2.5 ..