Cannot open program - Error (.vmdk - snapshot disks?) with Mac OS 10.6.4

[Roygroup]

I am in the middle of a project in Windows 7 and my VMware (version 3.1.0) will not start up on my Mac (OS X 10.6.4) I get the error:

Cannot open the disk '/Users/RoyGroupBook/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows 7.vmwarevm/Windows 7-000002.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

When I put in my disc, the only options I have are to "Install VMware Fusion", "Getting Started" and "Uninstall VMware Fusion". Being very unfamiliar with computer technology, I do not know what to do. I need help.

[mudaltsov · Accepted solution]

Please run VMware Fusion, then go to the Help menu, and choose Collect Support Information. It will ask for your administrator username and password, and will collect various log files and system information to help troubleshoot the issue. When the process is done, it will place a .tgz file on your Desktop - please attach it to your reply.

[Roygroup]

As asked, here is the file. Thank you.

[mudaltsov]

It looks like one of the files that make up the virtual disk used by Windows 7 is missing 1.7 MB of data. Do you remember what you were doing before the error occurred? For example, did you suspend or shut down the virtual machine, or did the computer suddenly crash or restart? Were you doing anything with Snapshots before the error?

It should be possible to fix this issue, though there may be some missing or corrupted data in Windows. Run Terminal from Macintosh HD/Applications/Utilities and copy and paste the following commands one at a time (make sure to copy the whole line):

cd "/Users/RoyGroupBook/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows 7+.vmwarevm/"

cp "Windows 7+-000001-s005.vmdk" "Windows 7+-000001-s005.bak"

dd bs=64k count=27 oseek=30171 conv=notrunc if=/dev/zero of="Windows 7+-000001-s005.vmdk"

Afterwards, try to run Windows 7 in Fusion again, and if there are any more issues, upload a new support information file. If Windows starts up correctly, you should run a full disk check and fix any errors, as described here: Check your hard disk for errors.

If everything works correctly, run Terminal and remove the backup file created by my earlier instructions:

cd "/Users/RoyGroupBook/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows 7+.vmwarevm/"

rm "Windows 7+-000001-s005.bak"

[Roygroup]

I did everything you instructed and the program is running great. Thank you!

As for your question as what was I doing before the program error occurred: I was working on a school project with Access and using Firefox to access the internet. I suspended the computer for a couple of hours and then could not get back on. BTW, I was in the habit of suspending Windows 7 for days instead of shutting it down, even before shutting down Mac's OS. Is it possible this attributed to the error message? In hopes that I will not error out again, from now on I will shut down Windows 7 daily and make sure it is closed before shutting down my Mac.

You asked about snapshots. The best I can answer is, 'what are snapshots?'

Thank you again.

RoyGroup

[continuum]

Hmm - you obviously used snapshots - so may be you should read about snapshots to avoid such issues as you just run into.

In short:

taking a snapshot freezes the VM in its current state. All further changes you make on the guest then are written into a new vmdk-file.

Typical usage:

take a snapshot before you run the Windows-update on patch-tuesday

when on wednesday you then find out that the MS-update messed up your VM you can easily revert to the state before

Snapshots are a very useful feature when used with care - but they have the drawback that they also can make the VM slower or even unstable when used careless.

You may have noticed the "autoprotect" feature - this is another way to automatically create snapshots - please avoid using this before you have a better idea of how snapshots work




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