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TASMichael
Contributor
Contributor

Could not start VM because of missing vmdk - perhaps corrupted

Hello!

Maybe i can find an answer here 😉

When i want to open my existing VM, i get following message:

" Datei „/Users/XXX/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows XP Professional.vmwarevm/Windows XP Professional-000099.vmdk“ kann nicht geöffnet werden:

Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden "

Translation maybe:

" Datei „/Users/XXX/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows XP Professional.vmwarevm/Windows XP Professional-000099.vmdk“ could not be opened:

System can´t find the mentioned file "

Here are my System Details:

VMware Fusion 7.1.0 running on an iMac OS 10.10.5

 

I´ve done already a Clone of my HD to try a few things - what i found out:

When i open the Packet in finder, i see the a lot of files in the format mentioned above, like " Windows XP Professional-000014.vmdk " and several files like " Windows XP Professional-000014-s001.vmdk " with running numbers from "001" to "011"

and there, maybe i found something - there is a single file named "Windows XP Professional-00009y-s010.vmdk" ... it looks like there should be "99" instead of "9y" ... 

 

Nobody was renaming something, after trying to make a snapshot the error came the first time, unfortunately i paused the VM and after trying to run it again, i got the same error over and over again ;(

i had a time machine BU, from a few days ago, but there i get the same message ... 

I checked the file system with CarbonCopyCloner an also with HD-Tool from MacOS

What can i do next?

 

Thanks a lot,

Michael

 

 

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TASMichael
Contributor
Contributor

... oh, forgot something - i only need some data files from inside the VMs Windows XP (acounting software) to send to my Accountant - maybe there is a way to get the files without starting the VM?!?

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

Backups of VM's on Time Machine are often not functional (See my article here: https://www.vimalin.com/why-is-time-machine-not-a-good-backup-for-virtual-machines/ for more details). I hope you did not overwrite originals with copies from Time Machine as you might have made more damage than repairs.

You are correct that the filename sounds like it is wrong, but changing it in "99" might also not help.
We don't know enough at the moment.

FWIW, I'm not a data recovery specialist, you need either André or Ulli for that.

To start with you should :

  • open a terminal window, and go to the VM's .vmwarevm folder
  • run: ls -l > filelist.txt (to create a file listing, which contains all of the VM's files with their file names, sizes, time stamps, ...)

copy the filelist.txt from above plus all vmdk files smaller than 10kB, plus the vmware.log file, plus the .vmsd file and compress all those. Attach the resulting file here for analysis.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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