Can not backup vmdk file; worried!

[suleyman]

I frequently backup my Virtual Machines folder to an external drive using rsync and CarbonCopy. But I started getting following errors:

With simple cp command in the terminal:

$ cp Documents/VirtualMachines/WindowsXP.vmwarevm/Windows\ XP-000001.vmdk .

cp: Documents/VirtualMachines/WindowsXP.vmwarevm/Windows XP-000001.vmdk: Input/output error

With rsync:

building file list ...

63526 files to consider

WindowsXP.vmwarevm/Windows XP-000001.vmdk

4.21G 100% 20.84MB/s 0:03:12 (xfer#1, to-check=63503/63526)

rsync: read errors mapping "/Users/suleyman/Documents/VirtualMachines/WindowsXP.vmwarevm/Windows XP-000001.vmdk": Input/output error (5)

WARNING: WindowsXP.vmwarevm/Windows XP-000001.vmdk failed verification -- update discarded (will try again).

The vm (windows XP) works fine but I am very worried that it will crash and burn and I will not have a backup to recover from. I ran Disk Utility to verify disk and it only needed to fix a few unrelated permission issues. I guess I should boot from a system disk and verify the whole surface of the hard disk.

Any recommendadtions, please!

Attached is my log file

[continuum]

I would make a backup of the complete package and then try to get rid of that snapshot you have.

Is the hosts disk healthy ?




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[suleyman]

I ran a complete disk check not long ago but I am about to do that again once the time-machine backup completes. I tried to backup the complete package of the VM in question but the backup fails when it hits that one file. The rest of the files are copied over though.

How can I tell which snapshot needs that vmdk file?

Thanks.

[WoodyZ]

Without seeing a file listing of the Virtual Machine Package and the .vmx and .vmsd files I can't comment however if you are happy with the overall state of the Guest OS then if I ran into an issue such as yours the first thing I do is make a manual backup of the user data that is in the Virtual Machine either while running the Guest OS or mounting via VMDKMounter. Once the user data backup was complete I try making a disk image using Ghost or similar or imaging directly to a new virtual hard drive thus eliminating the snapshot(s) without actually using the Snapshot Manager. The reason for not using the Snapshot Manager is because if the Host's hard drive is defective at the point it your copy operation is failing then it may not be able to delete the snapshot and can leave the Virtual Machine in a messed up state. Once a new virtual hard drive has been imaged you can deal with the issue as to how serious the issue is. Also note that Disk Utility is not preforming the low level test necessary to see if you actually have a defective spot on the platter of the hard drive. You will need to use an appropriate method to check before determining how to correct the situation.

[suleyman]

I guess I need to get smart on how the virtual disks work. As you said, the Disk Utility did not find any problems with the file that I could not copy. The hard disk S.M.A.R.T. utility is not reporting anything wrong either by the way.

Anyway, I deleted all teh snapshots and during one of the delete sessions, I did get the error that you predicted. Right now my guest OS appears fine but I appear to have 3 extra vmdk files that appear to be unnecessary and pretty old. Attached is the content of the package.

I found in a forum that if I create a new snapshot and delete the snapshot this should cleanup left-over files but it did not do the trick for the small vmdk files I have. Your recommendation certainly makes sense though. Thank you.