VMware Cloud Community
fgl
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Restoring selective files from a VMDK backup?

Sorry if this seems like a stupid question.

I have backup copies of VMDK for our VM's in ESX. I would like to know how do I mount or open these VMDK's without restoring the entire VM because I just need to be able to recover a few files/folders from these backup VMDK's. I tried to add it as another hard disk to a test VM I have but it tells me that "The file specified is not a virtual disk"

Any help or suggestion on how to do restore selective files from a VMDK is appreciated.

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
spex
Expert
Expert
Jump to solution

You should be able to mount your vmdk's within a vm.

There seems to be something wrong with your copies.

How and where did you take your copies.

For vmdk files there a 3rd party tools that open them like iso files (e.g. winimage) .

Vmware also had a tool to mount tool.

See <span class="a">www.vmware.com/pdf/VMwareDiskMount.pdf

Regards

Spex

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
2 Replies
spex
Expert
Expert
Jump to solution

You should be able to mount your vmdk's within a vm.

There seems to be something wrong with your copies.

How and where did you take your copies.

For vmdk files there a 3rd party tools that open them like iso files (e.g. winimage) .

Vmware also had a tool to mount tool.

See <span class="a">www.vmware.com/pdf/VMwareDiskMount.pdf

Regards

Spex

Reply
0 Kudos
fgl
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks for the info.

I just used WinImage to open the VMDK and just pulled out the needed files and then just copy the files over to the server. This method turns out to be simpliest to extract selective files from the backup.

Now on a side note do you guys know of a product to backup live running VM's on VMware Server (the free version from VMware)? We also have some of these and I like a way to backup the VM's without shutting them down and copying the VM to another location.

Thanks again.

Reply
0 Kudos