vmware workstation vmdk not found & modile disk power on failed

[getHecked]

Hello,

I just turned on my pc today and tried to open my vm and was facing this error. I can confirm that the vmdk file exists in the path and if I manually browse to the location I receive the following error:

The system cannot find the file specified

Cannot open the disk 'Z:\Kali-Linux-2020.2a-amd64.vmwarevm\Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.

Module 'Disk' power on failed.

Failed to start the virtual machine.

What can I do? I already tried deleting .lck but the error is still there

[scott28tt]

Post a full directory listing as a first step - filenames, date/time, sizes

[getHecked]

PS Z:\Kali-Linux-2020.2a-amd64.vmwarevm> dir

    Directory: Z:\Kali-Linux-2020.2a-amd64.vmwarevm

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name

----                 -------------         ------ ----

d-----        25/06/2021     12:51                Kali-Linux-2020.2a-vmware-amd64.vmx.lck

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43     3903913984 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s002.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:30     3416850432 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s004.vmdk

-a----        05/06/2021     23:50     3658874880 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s005.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43     1455292416 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s006.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:30     1297154048 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s007.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43     2089418752 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s008.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43     3977314304 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s010.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43     1716322304 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s011.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43     4016766976 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s013.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:38      934805504 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s014.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:37      830799872 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s015.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:30      501219328 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s016.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:29      430899200 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s017.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:37      656867328 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s018.vmdk

-a----        25/05/2021     11:39      185597952 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s019.vmdk

-a----        08/06/2021     17:43      740294656 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s020.vmdk

-a----        08/05/2020     15:21         131072 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64-s021.vmdk

-a----        11/03/2021     23:32           8684 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.nvram

-a----        08/06/2021     17:29           1765 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.vmdk

-a----        08/05/2020     13:56              0 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.vmsd

-a----        08/05/2020     13:56            285 Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.vmxf

-a----        13/06/2021     00:17     8589934592 Kali-Linux-2020.2a-vmware-amd64-4dcfd803.vmem

-a----        17/06/2021     20:33        6469629 Kali-Linux-2020.2a-vmware-amd64-4dcfd803.vmss

-a----        25/06/2021     11:56             52 Kali-Linux-2020.2a-vmware-amd64.vmsd

-a----        25/06/2021     11:52           4560 Kali-Linux-2020.2a-vmware-amd64.vmx

-a----        10/03/2021     19:01            394 Kali-Linux-2020.2a-vmware-amd64.vmxf

-a----        25/06/2021     12:02          57778 vmware-0.log

-a----        25/06/2021     11:58          57776 vmware-1.log

-a----        25/06/2021     11:56          57778 vmware-2.log

-a----        25/06/2021     12:07          57780 vmware.log

PS Z:\Kali-Linux-2020.2a-amd64.vmwarevm>

[getHecked]

I would like to add I have the same issue for both my kali vm as well as my windows 10x64 vm

[a_p_]

For the default .vmdk file format as used in this case (split sparse files), the "Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.vmdk" contains the list of ...-s0xx.vmdk files which make up the virtual disk.
According to the file listing, several of these files are missing. I can't tell you what may have caused this, but what you may do is to check whether the files are in e.g. the lost&found folder.

In case you don't have a recent backup, and want/need to try to recover files from the virtual disk, it is possible to recreate stub files for the missing ones, so that the virtual disk can be opened/mounted to run a recovery.

André

[getHecked]

I do not have a backup, unfortunately, how can we proceed with recreating stub files for the missing ones, so that the virtual disk can be opened/mounted to run a recovery.

[a_p_]

An easy way to create such stub files is to create a temporary dummy VM with the same virtual disk size as the corrupted one, then compare the descriptor .vmdk files (the files without s0xx in their names) to ensure that the s0xx files have the exact same sector/block sizes. If the sizes match, you can replace the .vmdk missing files with those from the dummy VM by just copying, and renaming them.

André

[getHecked]

Just to clarify, after checking if the descriptors match, should I copy the missing s0xx files from the dummy vm to my vm?

[a_p_]

Yes, exactly. Copy, and rename them.

As a side note, all but the last s0xx file for a newly created virtual disk contain the exact same metadata.

André

[getHecked]

hi,

I have copied the missing s0xx files, but now I Get this error when booting up the machine

[a_p_]

I was afraid that something like this would happen. The s001.vmdk file contains the first part of the guest disk, which usually includes the boot sector, partition table, ...

What you can try, is to mount the virtual disk to a helper VM, and try to recover data using a 3rd party rescue tool.

André

[getHecked]

Hi, 

I was able to find an older version of s001.vdmk and grub loads but during boot I get this error and the machine freezes. 

I have 2 versions of the s001.vdmk 

1 -> goes to grub rescue

2 -> shows me the error I attached above.

Regarding the helper vm, sorry if its a stupid question, but how/which files should I mount? So if I just make a quick ubuntu vm, how do I load my kali vm disk to it to repair grub.

Thanks in advance

[a_p_]

Once you have created the helper VM, you can then add "Kali-Linux-2020.2-vmware-amd64.vmdk" as a secondary virtual disk to the VM's settings.

Althoug I'm pretty sure that you already did this, please remember to backup the current files!

André

[getHecked]

Hello,

I've added kali vmdk to my ubuntu machine, but not sure how to proceed. Here I am listing the result of df.

test@ubuntu:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 1970796 0 1970796 0% /dev
tmpfs 400072 1900 398172 1% /run
/dev/sda5 19992176 7278876 11674708 39% /
tmpfs 2000348 0 2000348 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 2000348 0 2000348 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop0 56832 56832 0 100% /snap/core18/1988
/dev/loop1 224256 224256 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/66
/dev/loop2 66432 66432 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1514
/dev/loop3 52352 52352 0 100% /snap/snap-store/518
/dev/loop4 31872 31872 0 100% /snap/snapd/11036
/dev/sda1 523248 4 523244 1% /boot/efi
tmpfs 400068 84 399984 1% /run/user/1000

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

root@ubuntu:/home/test# dmesg | grep sd
[ 1.793104] sd 32:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 1.793388] sd 32:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[ 1.793445] sd 32:0:1:0: [sdb] 167772160 512-byte logical blocks: (85.9 GB/80.0 GiB)
[ 1.793468] sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] 41943040 512-byte logical blocks: (21.5 GB/20.0 GiB)
[ 1.793501] sd 32:0:1:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 1.793502] sd 32:0:1:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 61 00 00 00
[ 1.793545] sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 1.793546] sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 61 00 00 00
[ 1.793578] sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] Cache data unavailable
[ 1.793579] sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1.793675] sd 32:0:1:0: [sdb] Cache data unavailable
[ 1.793676] sd 32:0:1:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1.815314] sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 >
[ 1.816870] sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[ 1.816993] sdb: sdb1 sdb2 < sdb5 >
[ 1.818105] sd 32:0:1:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 1.899351] EXT4-fs (sda5): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[ 2.205150] EXT4-fs (sda5): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
root@ubuntu:/home/test# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 1970796 0 1970796 0% /dev
tmpfs 400072 1856 398216 1% /run
/dev/sda5 19992176 7278940 11674644 39% /
tmpfs 2000348 0 2000348 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 2000348 0 2000348 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/loop0 56832 56832 0 100% /snap/core18/1988
/dev/loop1 224256 224256 0 100% /snap/gnome-3-34-1804/66
/dev/loop2 66432 66432 0 100% /snap/gtk-common-themes/1514
/dev/loop3 52352 52352 0 100% /snap/snap-store/518
/dev/loop4 31872 31872 0 100% /snap/snapd/11036
/dev/sda1 523248 4 523244 1% /boot/efi
tmpfs 400068 96 399972 1% /run/user/1000
root@ubuntu:/home/test#

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can see my 80gb disk, weird to see it say 85/80gb. How should I proceed? not sure which /dev/xxx is my vmdk