Hi,
I understand this question has been asked and answered before, https://communities.vmware.com/message/2275732
The accident happened after my notebook run out of space and the *.vmx file was corrupted. Following the instruction found on this site I create a new VM and point it to my existing folder where the *.vmdk files reside. When I start the VM I faced with the error message of "Unable to open D:\Virtual Machines\Windows Win7 VS2008SP1\Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk file. One of the disks in this virtual machine is already in use by a virtual machine or by a snapshot "
I have followed the instructions by André (excellent answer by the way) and is able to clone a vmdk on my external HD, However, I have several drivers, C:\, D:\, E:\ and F:\ on my original VM. After cloning I run WorkStation on the cloned vmdk, lo and behold, it starts. But I found I can only see C:\ and F:\, and some files in the original F:\ and my Desktop disappeared. I have a few snapshots and the VM was suspended when it died, I thought Workstation requires to access the other files, so I copy the cloned "Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk" to overwrite the old one. When I start the VM, the same error message as above returns. Please help, I hope to recover my original VM.
I attach the VM files.
Thank you in advance for any help.
Regards
William
I just dealt with this today. All I had to do was move all files in the vm directory the snapshots into another directory except the .vmx and original .vmdk. Started right up after that.
Thank you for coming to rescue me. I have a about 10 snapshots before the current VM session. My directory listing is as follow:
The accident happened at about 2:00 pm on 14th Sept. I ended up with a 0 byte Win7 VS2008SP1.vmx, From the time stamp it seems I was using Win7 VS2008SP1-000011.vmdk and not the main Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk.
I have tried C:vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r "Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk" -t 0 "G:\Virtual Machines\_Rescue\Clone\Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk" , and
C:vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r "Win7 VS2008SP1-000011.vmdk" -t 0 "G:\Virtual Machines\_Rescue\Clone\Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk" - in both cases I lost all the files I was working on when my VM died.
I really need to recover the files in this VM. Any help is most appreciated.
D:\Virtual Machines\Windows Win7 VS2008SP1>dir
Volume in drive D is DATA
Volume Serial Number is 26C8-2F38
Directory of D:\Virtual Machines\Windows Win7 VS2008SP1
15/09/2015 17:45 <DIR> .
15/09/2015 17:45 <DIR> ..
14/09/2015 14:06 164,110 vmware-0.log
14/09/2015 11:30 373,748 vmware-1.log
13/09/2015 17:11 148,577 vmware-2.log
02/08/2013 10:15 2,615,029 vmware-vmx-10360.dmp
02/08/2013 10:26 5,894,711 vmware-vmx-10488.dmp
02/08/2013 10:25 5,895,095 vmware-vmx-10528.dmp
27/10/2013 12:07 2,808,000 vmware-vmx-11340.dmp
14/09/2015 14:09 32 vmware-vmx-12464.dmp
14/09/2015 14:06 9,814 vmware-vmx-12572.dmp
07/09/2013 09:01 5,898,551 vmware-vmx-24256.dmp
10/02/2013 16:05 2,825,048 vmware-vmx-4360.dmp
04/02/2013 13:26 2,607,389 vmware-vmx-5076.dmp
18/06/2015 10:29 5,899,371 vmware-vmx-7580.dmp
14/04/2014 13:45 5,897,995 vmware-vmx-9544.dmp
06/08/2013 09:18 5,894,921 vmware-vmx-9804.dmp
28/07/2013 12:33 1,739,587,584 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000001.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 1,785,331,712 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000002.vmdk
28/07/2013 12:33 3,964,862,464 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000003.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 1,737,949,184 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000004.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 2,074,607,616 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000005.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 2,810,839,040 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000006.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 3,427,598,336 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000007.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 2,928,607,232 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000008.vmdk
28/07/2013 13:10 4,025,221,120 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000009.vmdk
18/05/2015 06:44 4,863,557,632 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000010.vmdk
14/09/2015 14:09 2,665,873,408 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000011.vmdk
24/03/2011 13:17 27,843 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot1.vmsn
21/10/2012 15:58 28,275 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot10.vmsn
18/05/2015 06:44 29,121 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot11.vmsn
29/03/2011 09:09 27,980 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot2.vmsn
10/07/2011 11:36 27,916 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot3.vmsn
27/09/2011 18:01 28,244 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot4.vmsn
28/10/2011 14:25 28,244 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot5.vmsn
17/12/2011 10:03 28,244 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot6.vmsn
10/01/2012 09:44 28,244 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot7.vmsn
18/03/2012 22:12 28,244 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot8.vmsn
03/05/2012 16:30 28,244 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-Snapshot9.vmsn
14/09/2015 14:09 8,684 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.nvram
28/07/2013 12:33 21,060,911,104 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmdk
14/09/2015 11:29 536,870,912 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmem
18/05/2015 06:44 4,853 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmsd
14/09/2015 12:01 1,774,956 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmss
14/09/2015 14:07 0 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmx
17/12/2011 10:11 277 Windows Win7 VS2008SP1.vmxf
44 File(s) 53,670,849,104 bytes
2 Dir(s) 37,209,587,712 bytes free
Thank you in advance. The worst day of my life 😞
Regards
William
From a look at the VM's files everything except for the configuration (.vmx) and the .dmp files seems to be as it should be.
I recreated the configuration file from the log file you provided. Assuming you have a backup of the VM's files, use the attached .vmx file to see whether this will allow to resume the VM. If it doesn't you could try to delete the .vmss and .vmem files, which will cause the VM to cold boot (i.e. loosing the suspended state). Maybe this helps.
Anyway, what seems strange to me is that you mentioned that you did clone the virtual disk with the "Windows Win7 VS2008SP1-000011.vmdk" as the source (which according to the log files is correct), but still didn't see the latest files!?
André
the steps you performed all correct