VMware Communities
Colesky2000
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

The called function cannot be performed on partial chains. Open the parent virtual disk.

Team -

I have VMWare Workstation 14.1.3 build-9474260.  I am trying to expand my primary disk on a Windows 2012 server from 100GB to 160GB and I am getting this vague error of -

"The called function cannot be performed on partial chains.  Open the parent virtual disk."

I believe the reason is snapshots and some corruption to some of the core files in the VM directory maybe be corrupted.  I have deleted all of the snapshots and there are not folders or ".lck files in the directory. 

Can anybody lend a hand? 

Appreciate it in advance!

Chris

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Do not delete files manually !!!
Instead go to snapshotmanager and select the "delete all" option.
If snapshotmanager does not display that option - create a new snapshot first.
Then use "delete all"
Do all of this while the VM is powered off


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

View solution in original post

7 Replies
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

The message you received only appears if there are snapshots.
Do not trust the display of the snapshotmanager.
Do you have any vmdks with 00000*.vmdk in the name ?
Post a directory listing please


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
Colesky2000
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Thank you.  See attached pics of the directory.  There are quite a few files there.  Some of pretty old time stamps like they are partial snapshots or auto protect snapshots.

Chris

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Looks like you have one snapshot for the basedisk.
So before you can expand your vmdks you have to delete the snapshot.
And in case you still use Autoprotect - I highly recommend that you do NOT use Autoprotect


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
Colesky2000
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Interesting.  Remnants from a previous snapshot(s). 

What files do you see that are deletable?  Don't worry I'll back it all up.

Thank you!

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

Do not delete files manually !!!
Instead go to snapshotmanager and select the "delete all" option.
If snapshotmanager does not display that option - create a new snapshot first.
Then use "delete all"
Do all of this while the VM is powered off


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Colesky2000
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Okay.  Giving that a try.  Created a new snapshot, then deleted it using the Snapshot Manager.  BOOM.  That worked!

Thank you!

adit_t26
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

The easiest method would be to clone the machine as such: 

adit_t26_0-1630393932001.png  adit_t26_1-1630394172525.png

adit_t26_2-1630394181709.png  adit_t26_3-1630394199443.png

Give it some time to clone it (depends upon the size of your VMDK)

Then open the new cloned VM and there shouldn't be any errors when you perform the task in this new VM.

 

 

 

Reply
0 Kudos