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da_vmware
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Corrupt VM - Merged vmdk and flat.vmdk, OS not found

I had a hung VM. I tried to reset it, it got into this weird state and after 10 minutes it allowed me to power it on. The metadata files were missing when I browsed the datastore. I saw a flat.vmdk file.

So, I created the vmdk file by using the stub creator from . Once I copied the .vmdk file that I created into the flat.vmdk folder, I was able to see the merged file in the datastore as a virtual disk, earlier it was just a file. My next step was I created a VM with a similar name and used the existing vmdk file that I just merged as the disk for it.

I verified that the size matched the original Disk size. I get the "Operating System not found". I was able to make progress from this community posts so far, so thanks VMware for putting this together and if someone can help me out here, it would be great.

-DA

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LarsLiljeroth
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Hi

I could very well be that something went wrong. If you have the original FLAT file. try the guide described here

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-4040


// Lars Liljeroth

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*If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

// Lars Liljeroth -------------- *If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

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LarsLiljeroth
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Hi

And welcome to the forum.

Try and add the disk to another vm to see if there are data on this at all?


// Lars Liljeroth

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*If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

// Lars Liljeroth -------------- *If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!
da_vmware
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I added that disk to another functioning VM. After I initialized that disk, it came up as unallocated space and can create a partition for me. So, it looks like from here there is no data. Or am I missing something.

Another thing I wanted to verify is, there is an intact flat.vmdk file with the right size of VM. COuld it be that I created the .vmdk file incorrectly and hence something is not functioning properly with the merged virtual disk?

Thanks!

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LarsLiljeroth
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Hi

I could very well be that something went wrong. If you have the original FLAT file. try the guide described here

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-4040


// Lars Liljeroth

-


*If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

// Lars Liljeroth -------------- *If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!
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da_vmware
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Sorry for the delayed response. The fix was, while creating the .vmdk file, I was specifying the disk size parameter as 12.5 GB, our standard for VMs. Where as while taking a close look at the flat.vmdk file it was 12 GB. Recreating the vmdk file with correct file size got our error resolved and the VM was back.

Thanks for contributing and pointers.

-DA

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malaysiavm
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if you log in to the ESX console by command prompt, you should find there are flat file and .vmdk, which .vmdk is always referring the configuration file of your virtual disk. and flat file is the virtual disk that contain all you existing image or data.

Craig

vExpert 2009

Malaysia VMware Communities -

Craig vExpert 2009 & 2010 Netapp NCIE, NCDA 8.0.1 Malaysia VMware Communities - http://www.malaysiavm.com
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