error deleting snapshots - vmworkstation 11

[sdgconc]

after some help with an error I am getting when deleting snapshots.  The VM is taking up more and more space but the snapshot are not deleting properly when the error occurs.

"Unable to clean up delete files: Read beyond end of object."

I cannot seem to find any help regarding this type of error.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

as a first step, please provide a complete list of files in the VM's folder (run: dir *.* > filelist.txt). Compress/zip the filelist.txt along with the VM's .vmx, .vmsd and the vmware*.log files and attach the resulting .zip archive to a reply post.

André

[sdgconc]

Hi André,

Many thanks for your reply and for taking the time and trouble, please find attached zip file with requested files.

I look forward to your response,

Shawn

[a_p_]

... after some help with an error I am getting when deleting snapshots ...

Was this error related to low disk space on the host?

According to the log files there was an out-of-disk-space issue while creating snapshot "Win7 64bit-cl1-000018.vmdk". Since this snapshot doesn't seem to contain much data (if any at all), you may try to modify the configuration (.vmx) file and replace "Win7 64bit-cl1-000018.vmdk" with "Win7 64bit-cl1-000019.vmdk". Do this change while the VM's tab (or VMware Workstation at all) is closed!

Although the above should help resolving the current issue, I'd strongly suggest that you cleanup the ~20 snapshot you have for this VM (unless you really need them)! With the huge number of snapshots, it might be faster to create a full clone of the virtual machine rather than to delete the snapshots. Ensure that the target disk/partition for the clone has sufficient free disk space!

André

PS: In any case, please consider to backup the VM's files/folder prior do modifying things, to ensure you have a way back in case something doesn't work as expected!

[sdgconc]

Hi André

Thanks for this, i only have these snapshots for this VM, the error occurs when i have been trying to delete the older snapshots over some time.  This is probably why there are soo many old files still remaining. 

The folder this vm is located in is taking up 111GB, although in reality the number of files relating to the actual snapshots as shown below are probably somewhat lower.

With regards to Out of disk space, the drive where these reside has never been short of disk space the minimum amount always free is 20GB.

[a_p_]

... i only have these snapshots for this VM ...

What you see in the Snapshot Manager is based on VM's the .vmsd file. If this file is corrupt, or missing data (this unfortunately occurs if something goes wrong with deleting snapshots), you will not see the snapshots in the GUI anymore.

Anyway, do you have another drive/partition on which you can create a full clone? IMO cloning is the best option to reslove the issue in this case.

André

[sdgconc]

OK thanks André, I will need to free up some space first, then i will create the full clone, I will let you know once the clone is done, for the next steps.

[a_p_]

Great, and don't forget to replace the .vmdk file name in the configuration (.vmx) file as mentioned before.

André

[sdgconc]

Hi Andre, i have never created a clone before, which option/snapshot do i select?

Also you say about replacing the .vmdk and .vmx file, i do this after the clone is created?

Thanks again

[a_p_]

Also you say about replacing the .vmdk and .vmx file, i do this after the clone is created?

Edit the .vmx file this before starting the clone. Then use the "Clone from ... The current state ..." option, and in the following screen select a full clone.

André

[sdgconc]

HI André, amended the vmx file whilst wmware workstation was closed it was showing Win7 64bit-cl1-000020.vmdk i changed this to Win7 64bit-cl1-000019.vmdk.

started the clone and i get this message.

so then i changed the vmx back to the 000020 file, started the clone and i get this message

[a_p_]

I'm not e exactly sure what's causing this, but what should work is to manually clone the virtual disk.

To do this create a folder on the target disk/partition and then run:

vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r "C:\Daily VMs\Win7 64bit HW\Win7 64bit-cl1-000019.vmdk" -t 1 "X:\destfolder\Win7 64bit - HW.vmdk"

(replace X:\destfolder with the destination folder you created)

The vmware-vdiskmanager.exe command line utility is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation

Once the cloning process is done, copy the VM's .vmx and .vmxf files to the destination folder, and replace the virtual disk's name in the .vmx file to "Win7 64bit HW.vmdk".

Now "Remove" the old VM from VMware Workstation's inventory (do NOT delete the old VM yet), and add the new one (File -> Open ...). When you start the cloned VM for the first time, a question whether you moved or copied the VM may pop up. In this case the answer should be "I moved it". This will retain the VM's UUID and MAC address.

André

[sdgconc]

Hi Andre

now i get this

[a_p_]

Only to rule this out, did you already create the destination folder "HWWIN7", i.e. des it exist?

André

[sdgconc]

Yes correct I created the folder before executing the command line.

[a_p_]

According to the log file "Win7 64bit-cl1-000016.vmdk" is the next snapshot (i.e. the parent of ...-000019.vmdk) in the chain. Please run the vmware-vdiskmanager command with this file as the source. If this works we can focus on snapshot 000019 to see whether this is corrupt, and can be fixed.

André

[continuum]

The filename you used is invalid - you specify one of the split-slices of snapshot 000001 - Andre told you to specify snapshot 000019.

[sdgconc]

Hi Andre, now i am getting this with Win7 64bit-cl1-000016.vmdk

[sdgconc]

Hello I would like to revisit this and try to resolve the error I am getting when deleting snapshots.  Can I resend up to date logs for the logs previously requested?

Many thanks,