Hi mikey,
Not to sure if you have seen this KB article already, but you could check out Microsoft KB article 2261423 which can be viewed at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2261423
It does provide some information concerning restoring Windows 2008 systems, which if nothing else, it may prove to be insightful.
You could also try the following... (Of course you test this on a copy of the virtual machine, so don't further break the original virtual machine)
1.Reboot the virtual machine from the Windows 2008 installation CD.
2.Click Repair your computer to allow Windows 2008 to repair itself.
3.Take a backup of the .vmdk file.
4.From the command prompt, execute:
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
Note: Select Yes for any prompts.
5.Reboot the virtual machine normally.
Another last ditch effort would be trying VMware Converter against this virtual machine, as by default VMware Converter only turns dynamic disks into basic disks.
Hope you get somewhere with one of the above methods.
Regards,
Graham Daly
Knowledge Champion
VMware Inc.