How do I access files within a corrupt disk image or snapshot?

[lapointer]

My Mac hard drive recently corrupted, and I was able to use data recovery software to get the VM images from it. However, when I wiped the hard drive, reinstalled everything, and copied back the VM images, I am unable to open the images (with a cryptic error - I scoured the forums but only one other person seems to have ever had this error and no one answered his inquiry.).

I have created a whole new image in VM and it is working fine. At this point I don't care about the old image or the cryptic error, I just need to get a bunch of PPT and XLS files that existed within that old image. Within Finder, I have gone to the image and tried "Open With... VMDK Mounter", but nothing happens - no error message, confirmation, anything at all.

Any ideas on how I can peek into this image and recover my files?

[rvergin]

I have a similar problem. My hd died and my backup is over 30 days old. I am attempting to recover the data from the corrupt hd using Stellar Phoenix. I am going to create a new folder with the recovered data and then share the folder in my vm windows environment and see if I can copy the files that way. Maybe you can share your other drive(?) and access your files from your windows session. Good Luck.

[WoodyZ]

Within Finder, I have gone to the image and tried "Open With... VMDK Mounter", but nothing happens - no error message, confirmation, anything at all.

Any ideas on how I can peek into this image and recover my files?

Normally if VMDKMounter mounts successfully an icon will appear on the Desktop and other then that an error message would occur. Are you saying no icon appeared on the Desktop for that drive?

Archive an attach the following file to a reply post:

/Users/${USER}/Library/Logs/VMDKMounter/vmdkMounter.log

[lapointer]

Log is attached. Yes, unfortunately nothing happens - no icon on the desktop, no error, and you can see from the log that it looks like I have not even done anything since the 21st! Very weird. I just tried again (twice) right before attaching this.

[rcardona2k]

I suspect your virtual disk may be corrupt or incomplete. Some possible ways to recover data are:

1. Run vmware's vdiskmanager consistency checker with repair option. In Terminal (use spotlight to find), and run

/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-vdiskmanager -R /path/to/your/virtualdisk.vmdk, e.g.

Be careful with snapshots, as I'm not sure if repairing a base VMDK will invalidate snapshots. You could try first to check the integrity of snapshot files (-00001.vmdk files) first and see if any errors are reported.

/Library/Application Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-vdiskmanager -R /Users/rcardona/Documents/WinXP.vmwarevm/WinXP.vmdk

2. On a Windows system or a separate Windows VM (use Shared Folders to access your virtual disk file) and open with WinImage. WinImage opens a VMDK as document file and loads the filesystem. It's able to read fat32, ntfs, and various ext filesystems. If there is anything to be salvaged in your VMDK, WinImage might let you see it. WinImage supports snapshots so open the corresponding disk-000001.vmdk file. You can also bypass the snapshots to peek into the base image. WinImage is read only so there is little risk of losing any data by just peeking into the disk.

[continuum]

post the latest vmware.log from that VM.

This usually shows how corrupted the vmdk is.

If there is anything important in the vmdks copy the VM to a Windows-host.

Recovery is much easier on that platform




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay