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Annonsmakaren
Contributor
Contributor
‎12-28-2008 02:57 PM

Empty Virtual Machine folder!

I am used to things just working - so after my recent (yearly) disk cleaning I was surprised that when I opened my VMware Fusion I had no Virtual machine to open Windows with. I looked up the Virtual Machine folder in Documents and it is empty. It seem I have accidently erased it!!! This is pretty much a catastrofy since I run my book keeping on that Windows partition. Can anyone help me recover this file or get access to the Windows partition in any other way? Please help!

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3 Replies
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal
‎12-28-2008 03:12 PM

If you deleted a Virtual Machine Document Package from ~/Documents/Virtual Machines and emptied the Trash then only thing to do would be to immediately shutdown the system and boot it from a Recovery Disc or OS X on a FireWire Drive either of which that had the appropriate software to recover deleted files in OS X and at a minimum you have to recover all of the files that comprise the Virtual Machine's Virtual Hard Disk Drive and every second you continue to use the system from the time you emptied the Trash you lessen the chance for a successful recovery if one can be made at all.

You may just have to create a new Virtual Machine and restore the User Data that you've been backing up on a regular basis to the new Virtual Machine and if you haven't been backing up your User Data I'm sure you going to start doing it now.

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Annonsmakaren
Contributor
Contributor
‎12-28-2008 03:22 PM

Oh no! Is this true??? Is this for real? Is there no other way for me to get access to the windows partition? This is a complete catastrofy! I feel so bad...and sad...

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal
‎12-28-2008 03:47 PM 

 Oh no! Is this true??? Is this for real? Is there no other way for me to get access to the windows partition?
In a normal file based Virtual Machine the virtual hard disk drive is nothing more then files on the Host and in deleting the Virtual Machine Document Package from the ~/Documents/Virtual Machines folder and subsequently emptying the Trash you have delete these files that comprise the virtual hard disk drive and thus there is no Windows partition anymore.
Now on the other hand if you were running a Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine then that's a different story and it is not stored in the ~/Documents/Virtual Machines folder however since you didn't mention Boot Camp or Boot Camp partition I'd suspect that you were talking about a normal files based Virtual Machine and as such what I said is true.  Also if you are continuing to use the system by posting the original message and now replying back and so on you have further decreased the chances of a recovery.
This is a complete catastrofy! I feel so bad...and sad... 
Tough lesson to learn but I bet you'll start backing up your User Data from this point forward.

					
				
			
			
				
			
			
			
			
			
			
			
		

		
		
	

	
	


	
				
		
			
		
			
		
			
					
			
		
				
		
			
					
		
	
				
		
			
					
		
	
				
		
			
					
		
	
				
		
			
					
		
	
				
		
			
					
		
	
				
		
	
	


		

	

		

			

	
		
			
					
				
		
			
		
			
					
		
		
	
				
		
			
					
				
		
			
					

	
			

				
		
			
		
			
				

					
						
	
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