VMware Cloud Community
Jerry_03
Contributor
Contributor

Recover files from corrupt .VMDK file

Hello im a newbie to esxi. I think my ESXi vm, HMS.vmdk (1kb) got corrupted so I copied it along with HMS-flat.vmdk (1.8tb) to my windows PC using veeam in order to attempt to extract and recover the files

I tried using powerISO, VMDK Forensic Artifact Extractor, tried putting the vmdk file on Workstation 10. All of it gave me error about invalid disk type or not a valid vm image, something along those lines.

HMS.vmdk:

# Disk DescriptorFile
version=1
encoding="UTF-8"
CID=fffffffe
parentCID=ffffffff
isNativeSnapshot="no"
createType="vmfs"

# Extent description
RW 3907033088 VMFS "HMS-flat.vmdk"

# The Disk Data Base
#DDB

ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
ddb.geometry.biosCylinders = "243201"
ddb.geometry.biosHeads = "255"
ddb.geometry.biosSectors = "63"
ddb.geometry.cylinders = "243201"
ddb.geometry.heads = "255"
ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"
ddb.longContentID = "37c3bb2c05cd493bd624cfd07ddc5da5"
ddb.thinProvisioned = "1"
ddb.toolsVersion = "9409"
ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 93 f1 8c ca 02-52 c6 92 14 6f a3 86 b9" 
Reply
0 Kudos
2 Replies
suj27
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

The descriptor file looks fine. The descriptor file can be recreated, you can delete the old/corrupted one and recreate using the steps mentioned in the below KB

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1002511

Sujeev Kumar
Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

# Disk DescriptorFile

version=1

encoding="UTF-8"

CID=fffffffe

parentCID=ffffffff

createType="monolithicFlat"

# Extent description

RW 3907033088 FLAT "HMS-flat.vmdk" 0

# The Disk Data Base

#DDB

ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"

ddb.geometry.cylinders = "243201"

ddb.geometry.heads = "255"

ddb.geometry.sectors = "63"

this edited version should be Workstation compatible - although the one you have should work as well


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos