new clean OS install to 10.11.4 can't open old virtual machine

[dnisinson]

Had to do a clean install of iMac OS 10.11.4. used migration assistant to bring over applications only.

Copied over the Virtual machine folder from my Time machine back up

Currently have fusion 6.x installed and have the upgrade to v8 downloaded and waiting to install

Problem: When I launch Fusion 6.x  and try to point it to the copied over virtual machine folder, the file inside it which contains my virtual machine is greyed out and un-selectable.

I am not certain if the virtual machine was left Suspended at that iteration of it as the reason for the clean install was sudden frequent crashes that caused me to bring my mac into apple repair. They did the clean install when it was determined it was a software issue not a hardware one. I knew i had a backup

I could bring over previous iterations of the backed up virtual machine to see if finding one that is not suspended but not happy about that as I will get older files from the financial software.

Any other options, procedures or recommendations I should follow?

Help!

iMac is 27 inch , Mid 2011

processor: 3.4 GHz Intel core i7

memory: 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

2 TB HD

[ColoradoMarmot]

The first thing I'd try is installing Fusion 8 - Fusion 6 isn't supported on 10.11, and that may be the issue.

If not, unfortunately, Time machine is completely unreliable for backing up and restoring virtual machines.  Do you have a standalone copy somewhere?  If not, you can try other TM backups and see if you get lucky.

As a last resort you may be faced with creating a new VM, then manually mounting the disk from the time machine backup in that VM, and (if it works), copying over your data files, then remove the TM VM disk from the new VM.

Once you do get things running again, it's best to simply exclude the VM from time machine backups completely, and either copy it using finder, or do a system clone (Carbon Copy Cloner) with the VM shut down (not suspended).

[dnisinson]

"As a last resort you may be faced with creating a new VM, then manually mounting the disk from the time machine backup in that VM, and (if it works), copying over your data files, then remove the TM VM disk from the new VM." 

I don't understand how to do this. What steps are needed to implement this plan. I may certainly need to understand the exact steps if the first option you mention does not work. thanks for your response