Problem backing up a vmdk file

[johnstonf]

Simple operation...

I am trying to copy my vmware vm's and disk files to an external drive. I have quit Fusion, so it is not running. It stops part way through, and gives the error listed below)... I have it down to a particular file that I can't even make a copy of on the SAME internal hdd.

The error i get is "The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "FJ-DATA-1-s010.vmdk" could not be read or written.

Could this be a bad spot on my hard drive?? (first one I've ran into if it is)... or corruption in the file? If so, is there a way to have vmWare try to rebuild the file/disk? (Inside Fusion (in my XP VM) I haven't noticed any problems YET... i was simply trying to get a backup of my disks and vmware vm's).

[WoodyZ]

This really has nothing to do with VMware Fusion per se since the application is closed and it is the OS via Finder that is failing to copy a particular file.

The bottom line is you need to troubleshoot this issue just as if this particular file was created by any other application on your system and it really doesn't matter what application created this file that Finder is having a problem copying. Therefore first thing I would do is performed a low the level disk check using a utility that is capable of testing the surface of the platters of the hard drive and is operating at a level underneath of the OS and or file system. Once you have verified that the physical disk is free from errors then there are other methods to attempt to work around this issue. BTW Disk Utility is not capable of performing this low level type test. Depending on the manufacture of the hard drive I either use a utility from that manufacture or just use dd from a Linux Live CD/DVD or even the OS X DVD.

One work around would be to use VMware vCenter Converter to create a new virtual hard drive from the existing Virtual Machine. This product is run from within the Virtual Machine while it is running and would basically only copy the areas of the virtual hard drive that are in use and you would be hoping that the actual spot on the physical hard drive in which the target file that you're getting the error message on resides doesn't contain information being used by the Guest's file system. In other words the point at which the copy is failing in Finder may actually be a spot within the virtual hard drive and/or the Guest's file system that isn't being occupied and is just slack space. Obviously if you try this in the operation fails the not only is the physical hard drive itself effective in that spot but it is also a spot within the virtual hard drive that is being occupied by applications and/or user data.