Which vmdk file to load

Are you trying to open VMDK file at no success? Then read below for more information about VMDK files. VMDK is a virtual disk file which is used to store the content of virtual hard disk drives. It is an open file format by VMware. VMDK files contain all the information about a virtual machine. VMDK is normally used for virtualization and cloud computing. The virtual disk which contains a VMDK file can work as a single virtual machine.

A virtual disk descriptor is represented as plain text. On the left side of the screenshot below, you can see a virtual disk descriptor of the ESXi format a vmdk file that can be opened with any text editor. On the right side of the screenshot, you can set eyes on the data of the virtual disk descriptor that is embedded into a single vmdk file of the VMware Workstation format.

The vmdk file is opened in HEX editor. As you can see, the embedded disk descriptor data is written to the monolithic vmdk file of the Workstation format from the 0x address, which is the number of the first byte. If you transform the HEX value to a binary and decimal format, you will get:.

This means that if you want to extract the embedded descriptor from the vmdk file, you should extract a portion of data starting from the th byte. Read the abovementioned blog post to see how to extract, edit and import an embedded virtual disk descriptor. On the screenshot below, have a look at two virtual disk files opened in HEX editor. The same operating system is installed on both virtual disks the first partition used for installing the OS was created and formatted with a built-in Windows disk utility.

On the left side of the screenshot a -flat. The raw data is written from 0x on this virtual disk -flat. On the right side of the screenshot, the virtual disk of the Workstation format is displayed and the same data is written from 0x byte number which is not the beginning of the vmdk file. Before you proceed, it is recommended that you back up your data to prevent any possible virtual disk damage.

Perform operations with your disks at your own responsibility and risk. The advantages of these methods are simplicity and universality. After booting an operating system from a DVD media, you can mount the partitions of your virtual disk and copy files from the virtual disk to a USB hard disk attached to the VM or to your host machine, or to any other machine via the network.

Some Live DVD distributions mount disks partitions automatically. This method can be called a legacy method because the principle is similar to copying files from physical disks of physical computers when the installed operating system cannot boot. Be aware that the operating system booted from Live DVD must recognize file systems of partitions of your virtual disk whose files you want to access.

Using additional tools on Windows may help to resolve this issue. There are two NTFS partitions on the virtual disk — one is the boot system partition and the second is disk C.

The official Ubuntu 18 installation ISO image is used in the current example. The file name is ubuntu In our example, copying data to the SMB share will be explained. First, create a directory to be used as the mount point. Then make sure that the necessary files have been copied, and check the contents of your SMB share.

As you can see on the screenshot above, the bootmgr file used in this example has been copied successfully. Now you know the first method of copying the contents of the VMDK file to another location when an operating system installed on a VM cannot boot.

This method is similar to the previous one, but a VMDK virtual disk should be attached to an existing virtual machine that has a functioning operating system. Keep in mind that the functioning operating system on the first healthy VM must be compatible with file systems used on a virtual disk of the second VM that has a non-bootable operating system a VM whose VMDK file you want to attach as an additional virtual disk to extract files.

Power off the VM that uses a virtual disk from which files you want to extract. Find this virtual disk in the ESXi datastore. Copy the virtual disk to another directory on the same datastore or another datastore to prevent an error caused by virtual disk lock.

The ESXi host is managed by vCenter. If you use a standalone ESXi host without vCenter, you can use the logics explained in this example — the differences are only in the user interface. Select destination and hit the Copy button to confirm. In the opened window, select the destination. You can copy the VMDK file to some location on the same datastore or to another datastore. Both vmdk and - flat. A virtual disk can be attached to this healthy VM while the VM is running. Select the copy of your VMDK file that you have made previously.

In the current example, the copy of Win-test2. Power on the healthy VM to which you have attached the virtual disk you are interested in, if the VM has not been powered on yet. Click "Next," and then click "Next again on the following page.

Click "Finish. Click the "Add" button, select "Hard Disk" and click "Next. Click "Open" and then click "Finish. You may need to restart the virtual machine before you can access it.

He has completed college-level English language and English literature studies. Jackson maintains a travel blog and regularly writes for the travel market.