Cannot start Virtual Machine: "A disk read error occurred"

[ulrikbalslev]

Hi all,

Due to a power failure on my Mac Book, my Mac session died and with it died a running vmware Fusion session with Windows 7.

When I now try to start my Fusion Windows 7 virtual machine, the message "A disk read errror occurred Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart" appears during boot. Apparently something has been corrupted during sudden termination of the Mac session.

Has anyone some input as to how I repair this session?

I am running VMware Fusion 4.1.2 on Mac OS X 10.6.7.

Thanks for any input.

regs.

ulrik

[Mikero]

Hi there,

Due to a power failure on my Mac Book, my Mac session died and with it died a running vmware Fusion session with Windows 7

Ouch... bad things can happen when this situation occurs and it's not always recoverable.  If you have backups (which we all do, right?), now's a good time to bring them out.

When I now try to start my Fusion Windows 7 virtual machine, the message "A disk read errror occurred Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart" appears during boot. Apparently something has been corrupted during sudden termination of the Mac session.

I would either try to run a Windows Repair, or look at getting your data out of the VM as best you can and create a new VM.

You can still access the data currently on the damaged virtual disk, assuming the disk itself is not corrupt.

To do this:

- Use Finder to navigate to your Home > Documents > Virtual Machines folder

- Hold Control on your keyboard and click (or Right-Click) your Virtual Machine file > click "Open with VMDKMounter"

This should mount your disk just like any other .dmg, .iso, CD/DVD or USB drive

Navigate to the newly mounted disk either in Finder or on the Desktop and within it should be the contents of your Guest OS.

[ulrikbalslev]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your input.

I don't seem to have access to the vmdkmounter utility..... I have searched using spotlight and the vmdkmounter is not on the list when I ctrl-click my virtual machine file...

I have to admit, that I am new to the Mac environment.

regs,

Ulrik

[WoodyZ]

The default location for VMDKMounter is "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/" and if it isn't on the context menu as shown in the image below yet it exists at the aforementioned location you can always try dragging and dropping the Virtual Machine Document Package onto the VMDKMounter Application and this should mount the virtual hard drive if everything else is okay.