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UptimeDEMO
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Corrupt VMDK

Good Morning - a few months ago we had a power outage at work and my host machine ended up shutting off and my main Windows 10 VM no longer boots. I tried everything, to no avail. From my searching, it looks like someone here can help me, or at least point me in the right direction to be able to manually repair the VMDK files so I can get this machine to boot. I believe I have included the information that would be needed to help me!

yes I know I should have had a backup...

-rw-------@   1 ryanquimby  staff     4071697 Oct 21 08:03 vmware.log

-rw-------@   1 ryanquimby  staff     4071695 Oct 21 07:58 vmware-0.log

-rw-------@   1 ryanquimby  staff     4071693 Oct 21 07:57 vmware-1.log

-rw-r--r--    1 ryanquimby  staff           0 Jul 21 10:57 quicklook-cache.png

-rw-------@   1 ryanquimby  staff     4071676 Jul 21 09:56 vmware-2.log

-rw-r--r--    1 ryanquimby  staff         870 Jul 14 07:12 it-dir10.plist

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8387756032 Jul 13 13:13 Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  5995888640 Jul 13 13:13 Virtual Disk-cl2-s031.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7139491840 Jul 13 12:37 Virtual Disk-cl2-s030.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7796097024 Jul 13 12:19 Virtual Disk-cl2-s029.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7650017280 Jul 13 12:12 Virtual Disk-cl2-s028.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7970095104 Jul 13 12:05 Virtual Disk-cl2-s027.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8192786432 Jul 13 12:01 Virtual Disk-cl2-s026.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7733182464 Jul 13 11:59 Virtual Disk-cl2-s025.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7882407936 Jul 13 11:43 Virtual Disk-cl2-s024.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7948206080 Jul 13 11:35 Virtual Disk-cl2-s023.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  7955218432 Jul 13 11:29 Virtual Disk-cl2-s022.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8317501440 Jul 13 11:24 Virtual Disk-cl2-s021.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8197308416 Jul 13 11:24 Virtual Disk-cl2-s020.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8200454144 Jul 13 11:22 Virtual Disk-cl2-s019.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8218279936 Jul 13 11:20 Virtual Disk-cl2-s018.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8198356992 Jul 13 11:19 Virtual Disk-cl2-s017.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff   494731264 Jul 13 11:19 Virtual Disk-cl2-s016.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4159963136 Jul 13 11:19 Virtual Disk-cl2-s015.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4223729664 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s014.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4184801280 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s013.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4179755008 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s012.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4165730304 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s011.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  3637248000 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s010.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4172218368 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s009.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4209442816 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s008.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4194959360 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s007.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4216324096 Jul 13 11:18 Virtual Disk-cl2-s006.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4197187584 Jul 13 11:17 Virtual Disk-cl2-s005.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4218159104 Jul 13 11:17 Virtual Disk-cl2-s004.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4226809856 Jul 13 11:17 Virtual Disk-cl2-s003.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4220321792 Jul 13 11:17 Virtual Disk-cl2-s002.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  4250992640 Jul 13 11:17 Virtual Disk-cl2-s001.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  2470051840 Jul 13 08:22 Virtual Disk-cl2-s037.vmdk

-rw-r--r--    1 ryanquimby  staff       86874 Jul 10 10:07 startMenu.plist

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8389656576 Jul 10 10:07 Virtual Disk-cl2-s035.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8389656576 Jul 10 10:07 Virtual Disk-cl2-s034.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8389656576 Jul 10 10:05 Virtual Disk-cl2-s033.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff  8127184896 Jul  9 11:38 Virtual Disk-cl2-s036.vmdk

-rwx------@   1 ryanquimby  staff        7414 Jul  1 11:02 it-dir10.vmx

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff        3856 Jun 19 10:16 it-dir10.vmxf

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff   487849984 Jun 19 10:15 Virtual Disk-cl2-s041.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff        2453 Jun 16 09:59 Virtual Disk-cl2.vmdk

drwxr-xr-x    3 ryanquimby  staff          96 Jun 11 07:40 caches

-rw-------    1 root        staff    33542908 May 29 09:08 vmmcores-2.gz

drwxr-xr-x  106 ryanquimby  staff        3392 Oct 21  2019 Applications

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff          67 Jul  9  2019 it-dir10.vmsd

-rw-------    1 root        staff    32288631 Dec 16  2018 vmmcores-1.gz

drwxr-xr-x    7 ryanquimby  staff         224 Feb 18  2016 appListCache

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff     1048576 Feb  1  2016 Virtual Disk-cl2-s038.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff     1048576 Feb  1  2016 Virtual Disk-cl2-s039.vmdk

-rw-------    1 ryanquimby  staff     1048576 Feb  1  2016 Virtual Disk-cl2-s040.vmdk

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a_p_
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With the huge number of errors in the "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk" file's metadata, I'm afraid that repairing this file will be close to impossible. It's like a puzzle with thousands of similar pieces.

Anyway what should work to at least be able to access the virtual disk again, and even power on the VM, is to replace the corrupted file with one that just contains metadata.

The steps you may try are:

  1. optional but recommended, backup the VM's complete folder/files
  2. rename "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk" to e.g. "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk.org"
  3. replace "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk" with a copy of "Virtual Disk-cl2-s038.vmdk"
  4. create a snapshot! This will prevent the current .vmdk files from being modified, so you can revert to the current state in case you need to.

Unless another .vmdk file has corrupted metadata too, you should now be able to use the virtual disk again, and power on the VM to be able to access, and backup important data. Note that the ~8GB which were stored in the corrupted file are unfortunately gone, which not only means that some data is lost, but also that there will be some file system corruption in the guest OS.


André

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a_p_
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With the huge number of errors in the "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk" file's metadata, I'm afraid that repairing this file will be close to impossible. It's like a puzzle with thousands of similar pieces.

Anyway what should work to at least be able to access the virtual disk again, and even power on the VM, is to replace the corrupted file with one that just contains metadata.

The steps you may try are:

  1. optional but recommended, backup the VM's complete folder/files
  2. rename "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk" to e.g. "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk.org"
  3. replace "Virtual Disk-cl2-s032.vmdk" with a copy of "Virtual Disk-cl2-s038.vmdk"
  4. create a snapshot! This will prevent the current .vmdk files from being modified, so you can revert to the current state in case you need to.

Unless another .vmdk file has corrupted metadata too, you should now be able to use the virtual disk again, and power on the VM to be able to access, and backup important data. Note that the ~8GB which were stored in the corrupted file are unfortunately gone, which not only means that some data is lost, but also that there will be some file system corruption in the guest OS.


André

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UptimeDEMO
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Excellent, that worked! Thank you. I was able to get into my VM and pull a backup of the data I needed.

You're the best!

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Rohits1208
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If you need to recover VMDK files that have been corrupted due to events such as VMware tools crash, power failure, hard disk crash, virus attack, and more, consider using the Cigati VMDK Recovery Tool. It is a leading utility designed to efficiently repair corrupt VMDK files on any version of the VMware virtual machine.

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wila
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@Rohits1208 wrote:

If you need to recover VMDK files that have been corrupted due to events such as VMware tools crash, power failure, hard disk crash, virus attack, and more, consider using the Cigati VMDK Recovery Tool. It is a leading utility designed to efficiently repair corrupt VMDK files on any version of the VMware virtual machine.


Hi,

I almost reported this reply as spam, until I clicked on your profile...

Please.. if you post a reply like this then add your affiliation as in your profile.
eg. "I am Rohit Singh working in Cigati Solutions" (obviously doesn't have to be exactly those words)

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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