Unable to open file "C:\xxx\vmW864\vmW864-000023.vmdk": The system cannot find the file specified.

[lonsk1]

Can't start a windows 8 vm that has started reliably for a considerable time. I saw other posts that starting the authorization service fixed this, but not for me. The log seems to indicate it is trying to create the file named above but it already exists but I can start a linux vm and can see the same error in that log. The file does exist and theres about 40G of space on the disk.

I'm attaching the windows log, can anyone shed light on this?

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

I can't tell you what exactly caused the issue, but it looks like the "vmW864-000023-s003.vmdk" file became corrupted.

Depending on how much user data it contains, it might be an option the replace this file. To get an overview, please run the command

dir *.* /one >filelist.txt

in the VM's folder, and attach the resulting filelist.txt along with the VM's current configuration (.vmx) file to a reply post.

André

[lonsk1]

Thanks Andre

I attached the filelist, vmx file and the vmW864-000023.vmdk file

[lonsk1]

the filelist didnt seem to open. trying with utf-8 encoding

[a_p_]

According to the listing, "vmW864-000023-s003.vmdk" is missing (got deleted!?).

What you could try in this case, is to replace the missing file with an "empty" .vmdk file, i.e. one that only contains metadata, such as e.g. "vmW864-000023-s020.vmdk" (524,288 bytes in your case). Note that due to the missing data, you'll have to expect some file system corruption within the guest OS. If the VM comes up again, consider to backup important data, and run chkdsk /f <driveletter.> for the guest OS drive(s).

Notes:

• Unless you need the "Autoprotect" feature for the VM, consider to disable it in the VM's settings at least while fixing the issue.
• Take a new snapshot after replacing the missing file, and prior to powering on the VM to have a way back in case something doesn't work as expected.
• Consider to exclude *.vm* files from being scanned by a virus scan application.

André

[lonsk1]

Thanks man - the VM is starting up now and the OS is trying to fix the disk error.