Manually force delete snaphots files

[4d10s]

I have a problem in snapshots manager as I dont see previous snapshots files except for "you are here" but there are 5 snapshot files in the vm folder. Can I just manually permanent delete those snapshot  EXAMPLE-000001 to 000006 files directly from folder? Since I can only see current state "you are here", I assume delete those snapshot won't cause any issue?

Current VM is working fine now but I need to clear up those space. Mine is VMware Workstation 14 Pro. Windows Server 2-12 for both Host and Guest.

[scott28tt]

Post a file listing of the contents of the VM folder, the numbered files you see might be segments of the virtual disk since Workstation by default splits a virtual disk across multiple VMDK files.

[4d10s]

Attached.

I have another question, is it possible to shrink this VM *preallocated size" from 250GB to 200GB? Do I need to use VMware Tools for this change and where do I download it.?

[continuum]

Deleting any file may corrupt your VM.
Please zip all vmware.logs and your current vmx-file and attach the archive.

[4d10s]

There you go. Now I wonder if those are snapshots or not..

[continuum]

You have 6 snapshots in a straight chain.
If you delete any vmdk your VM will suffer corruption.

Read your vmx file and the vmware.log - and lonly look for  lines with vmdk ....

[4d10s]

I just started to learn more about VMware snapshot, so far i know its like restore point but I dont understand why it would corrupt the VM.

1. Why those snapshots not showing in Snapshot Manager?

2. I learned snapshots inTree chain, what's Straight chain?

[4d10s]

I can see it's opening those 7 VMDK files. I'm not sure why it become this way, how do I correct this?

022-06-24T13:02:04.754+08:00| vmx| I125: DISK: OPEN scsi0:0 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000006.vmdk' persistent R[]
2022-06-24T13:02:04.786+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2-000006.vmdk" (0xa)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.786+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000006.vmdk' (0xa): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.817+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2-000005.vmdk" (0xe)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.817+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000005.vmdk' (0xe): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.833+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2-000004.vmdk" (0xe)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.833+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000004.vmdk' (0xe): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.848+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2-000003.vmdk" (0xe)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.848+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000003.vmdk' (0xe): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.879+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2-000001.vmdk" (0xe)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.879+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000001.vmdk' (0xe): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.895+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2-000002.vmdk" (0xe)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.895+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000002.vmdk' (0xe): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.926+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened [0]: "HF1-ACS2.vmdk" (0xe)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.926+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LINK  : Opened 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2.vmdk' (0xe): monolithicSparse, 524365824 sectors / 250.0 GB.
2022-06-24T13:02:04.926+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LIB   : Opened "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000006.vmdk" (flags 0xa, type monolithicSparse).
2022-06-24T13:02:04.926+08:00| vmx| I125: DISK: Disk 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000006.vmdk' has UUID '60 00 c2 9f 57 28 27 ac-ae 96 39 37 1a 8d 9a 9f'
2022-06-24T13:02:04.926+08:00| vmx| I125: DISK: OPEN 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Shared Virtual Machines\HF1-ACS2\HF1-ACS2-000006.vmdk' Geo (32640/255/63) BIOS Geo (32640/255/63)
2022-06-24T13:02:04.926+08:00| vmx| I125: DISKLIB-LIB_MISC   : DiskLibEnumExtentsFromInfo: expecting 1 link; got 7

[continuum]

You created 6 snapshots - everything you see is normal.

[4d10s]

So, when I deleted a snapshot that 000006.vmdk file will still exist?

[4d10s]

I'm running out of disk space on my Host 6 GB left, so I would like to clean up those snapshots and I dont understand why those snapshots still exist when I dont see any under Snapshot manager. Current Guest VM is pre-allocate. I need help

[a_p_]

>>> I'm running out of disk space on my Host 6 GB left ...

That may explain the issue. Snapshots contain changed data blocks, i.e. 64kB blocks which have been modified or added.
With only 6GB free disk space, the snapshot consolidation may just run out of disk space (your largest snapshot has a size of ~82GB), because it needs to merge the delta files into the base .vmdk file.

What you need - at least temporarily - is more free disk space, or a lager disk to which you may copy the VM.

André

[4d10s]

How do I confirm those are snapshots and not split volume disk? because I dont see those files under Snnapshots Manager

[continuum]

Your vmsd file is invalid. That why the snapshotmanager can not evaluate the scenery.

Snapshot-vmdks are named "name-00000*.vmdk   - 6 digits number.
Vmdk-slices use only 4 digits - the first is either s(parse) or f(lat) : name-s00*.vmdk or name-f00*.vmdk

If in doubt look the vmdks up in the vmware.log - the types are mentioned when they are loaded

Ulli

[4d10s]

is it possible to fix invalid vmsd file?