The file specified is not a virtual disk

[NY1]

Hi. I am receiving the error "The file specified is not a virtual disk". This was a working vm, please assist as i do software development on this machine.

[a_p_]

Which VMware Product do you use?

Assuming it's VMware Workstation, then please provide a file listing of the VM's folder to get a first overview.
For the file listing please run either dir *.* /one (on a Windows host), or ls -lisa (on a Linux host).

André

[NY1]

I am using vmworkstation 10

Here is a list of the files in the folder

 2 147 483 648 564d1bc3-827b-7fc7-c581-02296539e83d.vmem
 2 147 483 648 564d4888-8bc3-8811-63c7-1df2ce46ef88.vmem
 2 147 483 648 564d4d90-16e4-4da5-c028-2f7c6b380a14.vmem
 2 147 483 648 564da4c1-551f-6192-c63e-d32022e7107a.vmem
 2 147 483 648 564dc490-b9f9-7eb7-efa8-348b41acaf67.vmem
2 147 483 648 564def64-098a-39fa-8d96-2674be87a20c.vmem

2 125 594 624 PointOfSaleVM-s001.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s002.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s003.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s004.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s005.vmdk
2 146 500 608 PointOfSaleVM-s006.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s007.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s008.vmdk
2 145 517 568 PointOfSaleVM-s009.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s010.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s011.vmdk
2 146 631 680 PointOfSaleVM-s012.vmdk
2 146 435 072 PointOfSaleVM-s013.vmdk
2 126 053 376 PointOfSaleVM-s014.vmdk
1 623 392 256 PointOfSaleVM-s015.vmdk
2 140 143 616 PointOfSaleVM-s016.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s017.vmdk
1 979 056 128 PointOfSaleVM-s018.vmdk
212 008 960 PointOfSaleVM-s019.vmdk
349 503 488 PointOfSaleVM-s020.vmdk
171 966 464 PointOfSaleVM-s021.vmdk
70 844 416 PointOfSaleVM-s022.vmdk
237 961 216 PointOfSaleVM-s023.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s024.vmdk
2 143 551 488 PointOfSaleVM-s025.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s026.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s027.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s028.vmdk
302 841 856 PointOfSaleVM-s029.vmdk
598 671 360 PointOfSaleVM-s030.vmdk
141 361 152 PointOfSaleVM-s031.vmdk
1 407 057 920 PointOfSaleVM-s032.vmdk
1 002 897 408 PointOfSaleVM-s033.vmdk
1 416 036 352 PointOfSaleVM-s034.vmdk
2 124 939 264 PointOfSaleVM-s035.vmdk
1 612 382 208 PointOfSaleVM-s036.vmdk
853 737 472 PointOfSaleVM-s037.vmdk
235 536 384 PointOfSaleVM-s038.vmdk
554 958 848 PointOfSaleVM-s039.vmdk
982 188 032 PointOfSaleVM-s040.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s041.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s042.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s043.vmdk
2 146 762 752 PointOfSaleVM-s044.vmdk
1 323 237 376 PointOfSaleVM-s045.vmdk
88 604 672 PointOfSaleVM-s046.vmdk
130 416 640 PointOfSaleVM-s047.vmdk
478 085 120 PointOfSaleVM-s048.vmdk
1 917 845 504 PointOfSaleVM-s049.vmdk
106 823 680 PointOfSaleVM-s050.vmdk
196 608 PointOfSaleVM-s051.vmdk
2 824 PointOfSaleVM.vmdk
0 PointOfSaleVM.vmsd
2 524 PointOfSaleVM.vmx
371 PointOfSaleVM.vmxf
2021/08/24 09:00 <DIR> Unused
2021/01/10 21:12 18 175 138 vmmcores-10.gz
2021/02/04 00:19 18 388 729 vmmcores-11.gz
2021/06/25 10:20 37 546 vmware-0.log
2021/06/15 23:52 37 690 vmware-1.log
2021/04/05 17:47 97 566 vmware-2.log
2017/04/18 00:54 2 435 654 vmware-vmx-10404.dmp
2016/01/20 09:24 2 572 542 vmware-vmx-1192.dmp
2015/07/02 12:02 3 131 910 vmware-vmx-1348.dmp
2015/12/15 11:02 2 357 459 vmware-vmx-1360.dmp
2016/01/20 09:46 2 573 512 vmware-vmx-2504.dmp
2015/07/29 19:17 3 122 900 vmware-vmx-2924.dmp
2015/12/18 08:43 2 532 917 vmware-vmx-4340.dmp
2016/01/21 14:30 2 541 561 vmware-vmx-4520.dmp
2015/06/24 11:34 2 957 403 vmware-vmx-4560.dmp
2016/04/06 11:33 2 534 279 vmware-vmx-4892.dmp
2016/02/01 12:35 2 542 073 vmware-vmx-5904.dmp
2015/12/18 08:28 2 541 421 vmware-vmx-7016.dmp
2016/03/09 15:31 2 541 575 vmware-vmx-7396.dmp
2016/01/29 08:59 2 537 079 vmware-vmx-7448.dmp
2021/02/04 00:19 2 548 362 vmware-vmx-7764.dmp
2016/03/31 09:45 2 544 781 vmware-vmx-7792.dmp
2016/12/31 00:51 2 484 428 vmware-vmx-7844.dmp
2021/01/10 21:12 2 553 324 vmware-vmx-7860.dmp
2016/02/04 12:46 2 542 529 vmware-vmx-9660.dmp
2021/06/25 11:08 37 232 vmware.log
92 File(s) 86 509 237 596 bytes
5 Dir(s) 640 891 879 424 bytes free

[NY1]

This is the content of the .vmdk file

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="windows-1252"
CID=65847368
parentCID=ffffffff
isNativeSnapshot="no"
createType="twoGbMaxExtentSparse"

# Extent description
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s001.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s002.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s003.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s004.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s005.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s006.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s007.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s008.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s009.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s010.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s011.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s012.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s013.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s014.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s015.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s016.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s017.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s018.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s019.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s020.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s021.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s022.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s023.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s024.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s025.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s026.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s027.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s028.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s029.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s030.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s031.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s032.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s033.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s034.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s035.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s036.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s037.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s038.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s039.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s040.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s041.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s042.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s043.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s044.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s045.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s046.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s047.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s048.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s049.vmdk"
RW 4192256 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s050.vmdk"
RW 90211 SPARSE "PointOfSaleVM-s051.vmdk"

# The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.geometry.biosHeads = "255"
ddb.geometry.biosSectors = "63"
ddb.geometry.biosCylinders = "13053"
ddb.adapterType = "buslogic"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "13053"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 99 00 14 e7 cb-b3 bb 13 a3 22 63 ad 85"
ddb.longContentID = "d509aadb68fd9dfc6ed5c30f65847368"
ddb.virtualHWVersion = "8"
ddb.toolsVersion = "8448"

[a_p_]

Please run  the following Powershell command in the VM's folder to see whether all of the data .vmdk files start with "KDMV".
Get-ChildItem *-s???.vmdk | % {$_.Name; Get-Content $_ -Encoding Byte -TotalCount 16 | Format-Hex}

Does the VM's vmware.log contain details about the issue?

André

[NY1]

I dont know if i did that correctly but this is what is showing

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000000 23 20 44 69 73 6B 20 44 65 73 63 72 69 70 74 6F # Disk Descripto

The log file does not show anything regarding the error

[a_p_]

The command should have displayed the first 16 bytes of each .vmdk file.

Anyway, please extract the attached .zip archive to en empty/new folder, and then drag&drop the VM's folder onto the .cmd file. This will extract the metadata (no user data) from each .vmdk file, and store it in Meatadata*.* files. Then compress/zip these Metadata*.* files, and attach the .zip archive to your next reply.

Unless already done, please backup the VM's folder/files prior to any further attempts to fix the issues.

André

[NY1]

I have attached the zip file

[a_p_]

Do you have a recent backup?

For most files, the extracted header area has been overwritten with binary zeroes. For two files it's some binary code that is stored in this area.

If you want, you may replace $HeaderSize = 1536 within the .ps1 file with $HeaderSize = 327680 and run the scrips again to extract the expected metadata size from the .vmdk files, and to find out if there's a chance to recreate the overwritten data. However, keep in mind that in this case I cannot guarantee that the extracted data will not contain user data!

André

[NY1]

Unfortunately i do not have any backups of this VM. I did change the size and reran but it seems to be returning the same error in the log file. Is there anything else that can be done?

[a_p_]

Yes, it returns the same error, but the Metadata*.bin files should be larger (the mentioned size), and contain the part which usually stores the metadata.
This will allow to check how much data has been overwritten, and whether it's possible to recover the virtual disk by recreating the overwritten part.

André

[NY1]

Here are some of the files

[a_p_]

I'm sorry, but it looks like something did overwrite a huge part of the files, which makes it impossible - at least for me - to recreate the metadata. You may however be able to extract important data using a hex-editor, or some 3dr-party data recovery tool.

Not sure what happened, but I'd suggest you run a complete backup, and then run chkdsk /f c: to ensure that there's no logical error on the disk, that may have caused the issue.

André