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MatthewEvans
Contributor
Contributor

The Parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created.

I am having the same problem, but I have two errors. I am not sure what happened (relatively new to VMware). One weekend I got a call from a user saying that the VM was down. This is the error I got.

"The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created. The content ID of the parent virtual disk does not match the corresponding parent content ID in the child

Cannot open the disk 'Z:\Timor Originals\Windows 7-000055.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on."

"The parent virtual disk has been modified since the child was created. The content ID of the parent virtual disk does not match the corresponding parent content ID in the child

Cannot open the disk 'Z:\Timor Originals\Windows 7-disk2-000056.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

Module Disk power on failed.

Failed to start the virtual machine."

I am not sure how to fix this or even how it was broken. Can someone look at these files (I hope I have the right ones) and tell me what happened or suggest a fix? If you need more files please let me know.

37 Replies
a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Welcome to the Community,

Please download http://sanbarrow.com/files/dsfok.zip , extract the executables, run the below mentioned command in the VM's folder, then compress/zip all the "xxx-....bin" files and attach the .zip archive to a reply post

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

André

Moderator Note: I branched your reply to a new discussion.

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MatthewEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for your quick response Andre. The VM that is having problems is the one called Windows 7. I noticed it had other VM .bins created for other VMs.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Wow, hundreds of snapshots!! Do you need all these snapshots, and snapshot trees?

To me it looks like this VM is kind of a patchwork VM, where several virtual disks have been added over time, and the "Autoprotect" feature created tons of snapshots (in addition to manually created snapshots). IMO this VM really needs some cleanup.

Please run dir *.* /one > filelist.txt in the VM's folder and attach the filelist.txt to a reply post.

André

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

.... and please also show a screenshot of snapshot-manager
and attach the current vmx-file and ALL vmware.logs


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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MatthewEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Yeah, I recently inherited this machine. The person that uses it wanted the autoprotect enabled and the extra drives were probably added over time to account of her using all her space for research projects. I have attached the fileslist as requested.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

FYI: our nicname for the "autoprotect"  feature  is "autodestruct"


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

After taking a look at the snapshot tree/chain (at least the part which shows up in the Snapshot manager), it looks like the error is in a single chain (see screenshot).

We can certainly try to fix the chain, but chaining the inconsistent chain-links may cause data corruption!

What I would suggest is that instead of trying to fix the snapshot chain, you use the Snapshot Manager, and go to a recent snapshot.

Please remember that Snasphots are no replacement for backups, so unless already done, make sure you backup the complete folder before changing anything!!!

You should also consider to cleanup this VM, by e.g. cloning the current state of the VM once an suitable (working) snapshot has been identified/selected.

André

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MatthewEvans
Contributor
Contributor

Sorry for the delay in a response, I had some ill news of a family member which carried over into the holiday weekend. If possible I would like to try and fix the error. It may be a stretch, but after checking with some other snapshots I am getting the same type of error on some of them.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Is it the same if you go to the latest snapshot "8/31/2017"? If yes, please attach the vmware.log file that's created with this being the selected snapshot.

André

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MatthewEvans
Contributor
Contributor

I reloaded that snapshot and the user said that it is missing two months of her data. So it's not the right one.

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LLXue
Contributor
Contributor

Hi contiuum,

I'm having the same problem now. Would you please help me? i followed the KB attached but neither Notepad++ nor Textpad if big enough to open the vmdk file.

Thank you so much in advance.

Lisa

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

If the disk in question is used by ESXi you should see a small file name.vmdk side by side with a large name-flat.vmdk or name-delta.vmdk.

The small name.vmdk can be opened in any texteditor - I highly recommend to use the embedded editor of  WinSCP.

If we are talking about Workstation vmdks see my howto: VMDK-Handbook-Basics

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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LLXue
Contributor
Contributor

filelist attached

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

now please run dsfo.cmd


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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LLXue
Contributor
Contributor

txt.zip

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

download and unzip fix-parent.bin in VM directory

then run dsfi.cmd


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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LLXue
Contributor
Contributor

Wow. It's a miracle and you are the angle. Thank you so so much!

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LLXue
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Ulli, thank you again for helping me yesterday! You are an expert!

​I was trying to backup the virtual image by copy and paste. During the process there was "Can't read from the source file or disk" message popped up. I tried to follow the KB 2019259 using the vmware-vdiskmanager to repair but it came up as no error found.  Please see the attachment. What further action can I take?

Thank you,

Lisa

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Lisa

so you can run the VM but copying it is impossible ?
Two options:

1. discard snapshots one by one until you find one constellation that can be copied.

This obviously will result in data loss

2. add another virtual disk and boot the VM with a Linux LiveCD and copy disk to disk with ddrescue.

This has a decent chance to work without data loss but afterwards you will have a VM that has no more snapshots.

Maybe there is a third option - but with the info that I have at the moment I cant tell.

Stupid question ahead - but I have to ask ...

Did you power off the VM before you tried your copy and paste attempt ?
If you did not - then maybe there is no problem at all.

It is expected that copying a running VM fails.

Anyway - without seeing your vmware.logs I can only guess and fish in the mudd.

That is not good enough to tell you what to do next.

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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