Cannot remove file from vCenter on Guest

[haigy]

Hi, I cannot delete a hard disk when I am in edit settings for a virtual machine and I cannot get the machine to boot, it is on a datastore that does not exist anymore

error message when I try to delete it is Invalid configuration for device '0'

the disk has nothing to do with the Operating System, it was just a disk that was added onto this machine to pull data from it

when you try to power on the vm I get 'virtual disk 'hard disk 4' is not accessible on the host

is there a way to remove the disk manually

thanks

[vmroyale]

Hello.

You could manually edit the virtual machine's .vmx file to remove the disk, or you could create a new virtual machine and use the existing "good" disk.

Good Luck!

[haigy]

Thanks, Just thought of editing the vmx file but never done it before

Can it be done via notepad and would I just remove the offending disk information

thanks

[vmroyale]

Are you using ESX or ESXi? I would use the native utilities on the host, and stay away from Windows text editors as the formatting can get corrupted quite easily that way.

[haigy]

Thanks, I have opened up the vmx file with vi, deleted anything to do with the offending disk, how do I save the file

thanks

[vmroyale]

In vi, the command ":wq" should do it.