Computer hard drive crash

[mswaney1]

Hello.... My hard drive failed and I can't seem to get my VMware running again.  I restored computer from a backup and can't seem to get my VM ware running again.  I am assuming that it is because the new drive installed isn't partitioned.  When I boot up VMware it just goes to black screen with blinking cursor. Could someone explain how to correct this problem?

Thank you in advance!!

[scott28tt]

The product is Fusion and it runs VMs.

Any errors when you launch Fusion?

Is it the VM console where you have the black screen? What OS does your VM run? Can you start/build other VMs as normal?

[ColoradoMarmot]

If you restored your virtual machine files from a time machine backup, you may be out of luck getting it to boot - that's not a reliable backup method.

Your best best if that's the case is to create a new virtual machine from scratch, then attach a COPY of the old virtual disk to the new machine, and copy over all your data files inside the guest, then shut it down, detach the copy of the old virtual disk, and then delete the copy.

[mswaney1]

Hello and thank you for responding.

I am running VMware Fusion 10.1.6.  

When I launch VM I get two pop up boxes.  First one says: com.vmware,KextControlHelper is an app downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?  Second one says: com.vmware,VMMonHelper is an app downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?

I have attached a picture of black screen window.

Imac is running Catalina 10.15.7

windows is 8.1 pro

[mswaney1]

Hello... thanks for responding.

Yes I did restore my entire computer from a time machine back up.

Could you please explain how to create a new virtual machine and then attach a copy of the old virtual disk to the new machine?  I am not a computer guy so as much detail of the process would be very much appreciated.

[wila]

Hi,

VMware Fusion 10.x is not supported on Catalina.
The black screen issue is a common thing that got reported a lot in the past when Catalina was released. There's a few ways to cure that, but none are really recommended or easy to explain.
The best thing you can do to fix this is to get Fusion 12.x, there's a free option if you're not using it professionally.

Download Fusion 12 (latest version, both player as well as prof) from here: https://vmware.com/go/getfusion

A free license can be obtained here: https://vmware.com/go/get-fusionplayer-key (note that your browser should not block any ads and you might have to try another browser or use privacy mode to get that key)

or if you want to buy go here: https://vmware.com/go/get-fusion12

--
Wil

[wila]

Hi,

re. attach disk to another VM...

Do you have another Windows VM?

If not... here's step one:

Microsoft has ready to run Windows VM's for testing (they work for 90 days)

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

Download the Windows 10 Microsoft Edge VM.

Uncompress the file you downloaded. Go to File -> Import and point it to the unzipped folder and select the .ovf file in there.

When pressing continue.. select the location where you want this temporary virtual machine to live.

Press OK for a few times and let it boot.

Then login (from the webpage The password to your VM is "Passw0rd!" ) That's a zero before the "r".

Ok... now that you have a VM.. shut it down.

Now we're going to add the broken disk to this VM as an extra disk.

In the virtual machine menu -with the new ms vm selected- go to settings -> click on the "Add device" button at the top right. Select "Existing Hard Disk" from the options you have down there.

Click the "Add" button and navigate to the folder/bundle that has your problem VM. From the disks that you can then select choose the ".vmdk" that's in there.
I recommend to keep the "make a separate copy of the virtual disk" -if you have sufficient space.

Click open..

Wait until the copy is made and now you can try and see in the new VM if you can access files from your old VM in the extra disk you attached.

Good luck!

--
Wil

[ColoradoMarmot]

Doh - I didn't catch that, I'm guessing that's the issue and not a corrupt VM.