snapshots vmdk files

[kbpls]

Hello guys,

I have an issue with my snapshots that i deleted via vmware workstation pro 17. Despite the fact i deleted them from the application the snapshot files (-s*.vmdk) are remaining. As a result i cannot free space in my disk.

My Host environment is ubuntu 22.04 and guest is windows 10.

I tried to move some snapshot files before i delete them and them VM cannot start. So i return the back in the vm directory. IT seems that there is a dependecy that i have to resolve here.

Could you help me ?

Br,

Fanis

[a_p_]

To see what may need to be done, please provide a file listing of the VM's files.

Therefore please run ls -lisa > filelist.txt in the VM's folder, and attach the filelist.txt to your next reply.

In addition to this run grep vmdk *.vmx to find out on which snapshot the VM is currently running.

André

[kbpls]

Hello Andre,

thanks for helping... Here is the info you requested

grep vmdk *.vmx 
scsi0:0.fileName = "Windows 10 g-000004.vmdk"

[a_p_]

Not sure why deleting the snapshots from the Snapshot Manager didn't work.

What you may do in this case is to either manually clone the virtual disk using the vmware-vdiskmanager command line utility, or create a full clone of the VM from the GUI. Both option will require sufficient free disk space.
This way the current files remain untouched, and can be deleted once you've verified that the clone works as expected.

André

[kbpls]

I cloned the VM. And here is the list that is generated. Surely the amount of space is less than before ~180GB instead of 277GB. 

but the akward thing is that again there is a lis of *s* vmdk files as it is shown below despite the fact i have not taken any snapshot with my snapshot manager:

clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s001.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s002.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s003.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s004.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s005.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s006.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s007.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s008.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s009.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s010.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s011.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s012.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s013.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s014.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s015.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s016.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s017.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s018.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s019.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s020.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s021.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s022.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s023.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s024.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s025.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s026.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s027.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s028.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s029.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s030.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s031.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1-s032.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10-cl1.vmdk
clap-fft/Windows10.scoreboard
clap-fft/clap-fftgroupnet.nvram
clap-fft/clap-fftgroupnet.vmsd
clap-fft/clap-fftgroupnet.vmx*
clap-fft/clap-fftgroupnet.vmxf
clap-fft/mksSandbox.log
clap-fft/vmware.log

Can you explain this ?

Can I get rid off those s00*.vmdk files ?

Br,

Fanis

[RDPetruska · Accepted solution]

---

@kbpls wrote:

I cloned the VM. And here is the list that is generated. Surely the amount of space is less than before ~180GB instead of 277GB. 

but the akward thing is that again there is a lis of *s* vmdk files as it is shown below despite the fact i have not taken any snapshot with my snapshot manager:

<snip>

Can you explain this ?

Can I get rid off those s00*.vmdk files ?

Br,

Fanis

---

Those files are the disk slices of the actual virtual hard disk.  No, you cannot delete them, or you will wipe out your VM's disk!

[kbpls]

Ok thanks for the answer!