Recovering VMWARE Workstation virtual mchines from HDD

[PCFerret]

I have a HDD from a now-dead PC that has a number of VMWARE Workstation Virtual Machines on it. I tried copying the VM folders from this HDD to the Virtual Machine folder on my current PC, but that doesn't seem to make the VM's usable. Any suggestions for recovering these VM's on my PC? Thanks!

[Dayworker]

Inside the Workstation have a look at "File" -> "Open" or simply press "CTRL" + "O" ("O" like Open) and looking for a VMX-file in the new folders. Double click on the VMX-file and a new VM is added to the inventory.

[WoodyZ]

PCFerret wrote: ... but that doesn't seem to make the VM's usable.

And exactly what is that supposed to mean!?  Are you getting an error when trying to run the VM or it is that you couldn't figure out how to start them after being copied?  If the latter then Dayworker has covered that and if the former you're going to have to provide more information!

[PCFerret · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your replies!

I was able to get a couple of the VM's to work. The keys seem to be (a) NOT a linked Clone, and (b) NO snapshots.