A problem opening up my older Windows XP Professional Virtual machine on Mac OS 11.7 host.....

[grpalmer57]

I recently had need to access an older Windows XP Professional virtual machine.  When I attempt to open the VM, I get the following error:  "A file access error occurred on the host or guest operating system".  I am currently running Mac OS Big Sur (11.7), and am running VMware Fusion Player Version 12.2.5.

I have attempted to solve this issue by searching the internet, but after a couple of hours, I have given up.  It is quite important that I recover this VM, as it contains some important documents that I have urgent need for.  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Sincerely,

George Palmer 

[Technogeezer]

Questions for you:

Was this VM running on that MacOS system at any time in the past, or did you move this VM from another system?

If you moved it, what was the source, and how did you move it to the Mac running Big Sur?

A file access error could mean that the disk you are running the VM on is failing. Any indications that your disk might be having issues?

If you get a chance, could you post the vmware.log file that's contained in VM's bundle? Perhaps there's a clue in there as to what's going on.

[grpalmer57]

Thank you so much for your reply.  The VM has been operating on my MacBook for some time.  I created it many years ago, and am not sure what MAC OS I was running at the time of creation.  There is no sign of the external USB drive that holds the VM package is failing, and I can access other files on the disk drive without issue.  I do recall having an issue when I was attempting to open up the VM, and I believe I may have exited out of VMware Fusion while it was doing something with the VM.  As a result, I am thinking that the index file may have been corrupted somehow, but I am not sure.  I was reading that this type of issue typically occurs when the index (.vmx) gets corrupted, but I have no way of telling.  I have attached the file VMware.log.  I have noticed that any further attempts to access the virtual machine does not result in changes to the VMware.log file, which I find somewhat strange.

Thank you for your assistance in getting to the bottom of this issue, as I really do need to recover some files and applications that are sitting on this Windows XP Pro virtual machine.

George.

[Technogeezer]

Has this VM been powered up on Fusion 12 and macOS before?

I'm seeing things that are making me think that the VM is being powered up from a suspended state, not shut down? Is that true?

[grpalmer57]

Hello.  To be honest, it may have been suspended, as I quite often forget to shutdown the VMs.  I also run a new Windows 10 Pro VM, which is operating fine.  I do recall being prompted to update Fusion,  and when I did this, I think a few things got messed up.    Given what you see, is there a way to reconstruct the damaged Virtual machine?  I simply need to grab a few files, and a couple of executables off the Windows XP Pro VM, and then I can discard it, as almost everything (but not quite everything as I have recently found out) has been migrated over to my Windows 10 Pro VM.

[Technogeezer]

Are there any snapshots on that VM?  That may help determine next steps. 
Before doing anything, though, I’d make a copy of that VM to another location. 

[grpalmer57]

It does not look like I have any snapshots of the VM.  I have attached a screenshot of the contents of the VM bundle.  I have also backed up the VM bundle to another location, so we can attempt to figure out how to restore it.

[Technogeezer]

A couple of thoughts:

One is that if you just want to get files off that VM and you have a working Windows VM, then try to add the Windows 7 VMDK to the running VM as an additional hard drive. Opt to copy the virtual disk into the working VM to preserve the contents of the original. Then try to mount the drive in the VM. That might get you access to get what you want off the drive.

The other option I can think of is to create a new custom VM as a Windows 7 VM, then use the Windows 7 VMDK as an existing hard drive (again, copy the virtual disk into the new VM). This one is a little trickier as Windows might complain about new hardware.

[grpalmer57]

I am a bit confused with your last post.  Just to recap, I have a working Windows 10 Pro VM on a separate drive.  That is working just fine, The issue I am having is with an older Windows XP Pro VM that seems to have gotten corrupted somehow.  That is the bundle contents I sent you, and the log file I sent you.  I am assuming when you say "Windows 7" you are actually referring to "Windows XP".  Please confirm.  

If that is the case, I am not sure I understand your suggestion.  I don't know how to copy the VMDK files from the Windows XP VM into the Windows 10 VM, since the bundle is not an actual folder.  I can see the contents of the bundle, but I am not sure how to add files to it.  I had read somewhere that it might be the index file that had gotten corrupted, as it basically provides pointers to how the individual VMDK files fit together to create the VM.  I am somewhat computer literate, but by no means an expert.  If you could provide me with some more detailed instructions, I would be most appreciative.  I am just hoping to clear up my confusion before I start messing around with the contents of my Windows XP VM.

[RDPetruska]

"since the bundle is not an actual folder"

Umm... yes.  Yes, it is.  It's just a way to pretty up the folder for Apple users.

And yes, I believe Technogeezer meant to say Windows XP when he said Windows 7 in that response.

[Technogeezer]

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I did mean XP. (too much Windows 7 and 8 on the brain lately).

Here's a high level walk through:

• Shut down the Windows 10 VM
• Open the Windows 10 VM's settings
• In the upper right hand corner of the dialog, click "Add Device..."
• A dialog will open with device types that you can add to the VM. Select "Existing Hard Disk", the click the "Add..." button.
• A Finder-like file browser will open. Navigate to the Windows XP Professional.vmwarevm bundle, and drill down into the bundle like you would any other folder - the browser will allow you to see inside the bundle without having to say "Show Package Contents".
• Select the "Windows XP Professional.vmdk" file of the Windows XP VM (don't select any of the slices "Windows XP Professional-f001.vmdk" and so forth - they will be automatically copied).
• In the lower half of the file browser dialog, make sure that "Make a separate copy of the virtual disk" is selected. That will copy the entire VMDK file (including all of its slices).
• Click "Open".
• Wait while the virtual disk is being copied into your Windows 10 VM. 

When you boot the Windows 10 VM, the disk should seen in Disk Management. You should be able to assign a drive letter and mount the former C partition from there if it hasn't been done for you already.

[grpalmer57]

Thank you SO MUCH for the detailed instructions!  I will set out to follow them this evening and will report back as to what the result is.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will in fact work.

Thanks for all your assistance with this issue!

[grpalmer57]

Sorry for the delay in responding to you, but I was travelling, and then other priorities cropped up to keep me from working on restoring my old XP VM.  Anyway, here is where I am at today.......

I added the XP VM as per your instructions above.  When I go into the disk management utility, I can see a new disk, Disk 1, but it is of type unknown, not initialized or Unallocated.  I am not sure what to do at this point, as it does not appear that the disk is valid.  That may be because the XP VM was corrupted, and thus when it was imported into the Windows 10 VM, it appears as broken.  I am not sure what to do at this point, but if you have any addition suggestions or advice, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks!!

[Technogeezer]

Ouch. I agree with your conclusions.  That’s indicating to me that something has corrupted critical disk structures on that virtual disk such as the partition table. 

If you opted to move a copy of the XPs virtual disk to that new VM , you at least have preserved the original and can experiment to see if anything will work. I’m not a Windows recovery expert, though, but I’ve seen articles on a web search on “windows recover from a corrupt partition table” that might help.

[grpalmer57]

Is there a way to start from scratch and build a new VM, and then somehow attach the pieces of the bundle to the newly created VM?  I am just trying to figure out a way to gain access to the documents contained in my original Windows XP VM.  Its just so frustrating that this happened, and I am pretty upset at myself for not capturing a snapshot of the VM, or creating a backup of VM in the event of corruption as I have experienced.

[Technogeezer]

Probably not. You’ve done essentially the same thing if you added  the XPs virtual hard drive as a existing hard disk to a existing  VM and opted to copy it. 

If the VMs partition table was stomped on (which it appears to be) then it has to be rebuilt it in order to have any chance of recovering data without a lot of effort. That’s going to take more hand holding if you’re not familiar with those details. And it still might not succeed. 

[Technogeezer]

Do you have a Windows 7 installation disk?