Deleted Vmdk ((new)) 【EXTENDED — 2026】

Are you facing a nightmare scenario where a critical virtual machine disk (VMDK) file has been accidentally deleted from your VMware environment? Don't panic! In this post, we'll walk you through the process of recovering a deleted VMDK file and getting your virtual machine up and running again.

Has any been written to the datastore since the deletion?

Never delete a parent VMDK file if a snapshot is active.

with the same disk size as the lost one. deleted vmdk

If the VM was removed but not "permanently" deleted, check the datastore browser to see if the files are still present but just unlinked from the VM inventory. Connect via vSphere Client. Navigate to > Datastore . Browse the folder of the deleted VM.

The file is gone from the datastore browser. You must attempt file-level recovery.

Check which VM is locking the file by looking at the .vmdk file properties or checking the vpxa.log . Are you facing a nightmare scenario where a

He looks back at the datastore browser. In his exhaustion, he’d been in the wrong folder. He hadn’t deleted the old dev disk. He’d deleted the production CRM’s primary .vmdk file while the VM was still running.

The Midnight Click

This tool can scan datastores for missing or corrupted VMDK files and reconstruct them, allowing you to copy them back to the ESXi host. Has any been written to the datastore since the deletion

By following these steps and taking preventative measures, you can minimize the risk of VMDK file deletion and ensure the integrity of your virtual machine data.

A VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) file is a file format that describes containers for virtual hard disk drives used in VMware virtual machine products. It stores all the data of a VM, including the operating system, files, and applications. There are typically two components to a VMDK file: