Hello,
I switched off the guest (Win XP) under MacOS and then I wanted to delete old snapshots. That operation did not complete.
When I wanted to turn on the Win XP Image again, it failed asking for inexistent *.vmdk files (...000001.vmdk and ...000002.vmdk) and then Fusion broke down.
Tried to check the left snapshot files for consistency. It did not throw up any error. I tried to open the left vodka files with Paragon VMDK mounter, that did not work. I
also tried to open the vmdk-files under Windows with idk.exe, that did not work either. Has anyone a hint for me how I can at least try to obtain some important files out of the vmd-file, which is the latest one? I am desperately seeking for a solution....
Welcome to the Community,
To help figure out what is what, the best way to provide comprehensive diagnostic information is to use the "Collect Support Information" command from the VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > Collect Support Information and then attach the .zip file (or .tgz file if pre-version 6) it created on your Desktop to a reply post.
Can you provide some more information, why the delete operation didn't complete? Any errors/warnings? Did you run out of disk space?
André
Dear André,
thanks for the prompt reply.
The size of the diagnostic file is too large (80 MB) - how do I have to handle it here?
The operation did not complete, because it took simply too long and I had to switch the Mac off.
Hope you can help - that would be a great Xmas present!
Regards,
Jürgen
As a first step, please extract the VM's folder (without its sub-directories) from the archive, then compress/zip the extracted files, and attach that .zip file to a reply post. The archive should contain a text file with a complete list of files, as well as most of the VM's files, except for the .vmdk data files.
André
I can't tell you what happened, but from what I can see in the logs, the VM has not been shut sown, but suspended, and "Auto Protect" is activated. Maybe the combination, and other issues caused the current situation.
Anyway, what I saw is that the base virtual disk NETZ.vmdk is stored in a sub-directory "/Users/<yourname>/Documents/Windows XP Professional Medion PC/MedionPC". According to the time stamp, you may be lucky and the snapshot/delta data was merged into this file.
André
Thanks André,
I already opened the the NETZ.vmdk file in the subfolder with Paragon VMDK Mounter, it worked but unfortunately it did not contain the current data.
Is there anyway to access single files stored in the snapshot VMDK files?
Or can I reset the state of the virtual machine somehow?
Thanks
Juergen
From the .vmdk metadata, and the file sizes it looks like some of the files ware overwritten for whatever reason.
The snapshot chain - according to the latest vmware.log file - was:
"NETZ-000005.vmdk" -> "NETZ-000006.vmdk" -> "NETZ-000003.vmdk" -> "NETZ-000002.vmdk" -> "NETZ-000001.vmdk" -> "NETZ.vmdk"
Files "NETZ-000002.vmdk" and "NETZ-000001.vmdk" seem to be corrupted.
We'd need to chain "NETZ-000003.vmdk" to "NETZ.vmdk" to at least have a complete chain, and then access "NETZ-000005.vmdk" as the last file in the chain.
If you are familiar with using a HEx-Editor you may try to do the following:
Please consider to backup the VM prior to modifying the files!
André
Did that.
I also changed settings in the vmx file so that NETZ-000005.vmdk was set to the primary hard disk by setting
ide0:0.fileName = "NETZ-000005.vmdk"
I got following message:
I only have it german, but translated it is:
File "/---/NETZ.vmdk could not be opened: a disk of this virtual machine is being used by a virtual machine or by a snapshot"
Don't I have to complete the chain up the latest file i.e. linking the NETZ000003 file to the NETZ.VMDK and the then the NETZ00004 to NETZ00003, NETZ00005 to NETZ000004 and so forth?
I also tried to mount NETZ000003.VMDK directly as well, but without success.
![]()
Any idea?
Unless I am missing something, all chain links - except for the one from 000003 to the base disk - were ok.
Did you close Fusion while editing the files? This is required in order to have Fusion re-read the files after manually editing them.
Please create another log bundle, extract the .vmdk metadata files (including the one for NETZ.vmdk), compress/zip them and attach them to a reply post to see whether there's still something wrong with the files.
Also please disable "Auto Protect". This feature may cause issues with automatically creating and deleting snapshots for the VM !!!
André
PS: Bei Fehlermeldungen ist es oft hilfreich, diese neben einer Übersetzung auch in der Originalsprache zu posten.
Will try again tomorrow. Thanks so far!
Good Morning,
pls find attached the log file again.
The german text of the error message is: "Eine Festplatte in dieser virtuellen Maschine wird bereits von einer virtuellen Maschine oder einem Snapshot verwendet"
I rechecked all the entries and ensured that Fusion had been switched off.
Same behaviour.
Again thanks for your support!
Jürgen
I cannot see the attachment.
André
It looks like you didn't follow the steps I mentioned.
You didn't rename the subfolder, and replaced the "parentFileNameHint" to ".../MedionPC/NETZ.vmdk". This way you effectively inserted 2 Bytes, which caused subsequent contents to be moved by two bytes.
Please rename the subfolder from "MedionPC" to "Medion" and remove the 2 additional Bytes "PC" from the parentFileNameHint, so that the file size will reduced to the original 111214592 Bytes again.
André
Dear André,
did that now - same error as described above. ![]()
"Eine Festplatte in dieser virtuellen Maschine wird bereits von einer virtuellen Maschine oder einem Snapshot verwendet"
Jürgen
Due to the issue with some of the snapshot files being corrupted, the logfile shows that "Auto Protect" now has issues with creating its automated snapshots. Please disable "Auto Protect" in the VM's setting! I'd actually recommend that you disable "Auto Protect" for good, and instead backup the VM regularly.
André
Auto Protect is switched off. Was switched off previously, by the way. Shall I try to return to an older snapshot - do you think that might work?
Any other recommendation?
Thanks and merry christmas!
Jürgen
Maybe Fusion still recognizes the Autoprotect Snapshots, because there are still several "...rollingTier..." entries in the VM's configuration (.vmx) file.
Two option which may help this case:
Merry christmas to you too.
André
