Extract Files from virtual machine

[dlhendel]

My Intel Mac crashed and I purchased a new M1 machine to replace it.  Now I find out that Fusion w/Windows 10 will not run on the new machine.  How do I extract data files from the .vmwarevm files?  I have a bunch of Word documents that I need access to.

[Technogeezer]

Here's one option:

Create a new Windows 11 ARM VM using the instructions in the Unofficial Fusion 13 for Apple Silicon Companion Guide, found here: https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Documents/The-Unofficial-Fusion-13-for-Apple-Silicon...

When you have the Windows 11 ARM VM working, shut it down.

Copy or restore the vmwarevm file containing your Windows 10 VM to your M1 Mac. You can't power it on, but you can access its virtual disks to copy the data from it. 

Add the virtual disk(s) of your old VM to the Windows 11 ARM VM. You do this by opening the Windows 11 VM's settings, and click on the Add Device button. A dialog asking "Choose a device to add:" will appear.  

Choose "Existing Hard Disk" and in the dialog that follows, navigate to the virtual disk from your Windows 10 VM. you wish to add to your new VM. (The virtual disk is located in the .vmwarevm file, which is in realty a type of folder that in this case Fusion will allow you to navigate into.).

When prompted, select to make a copy of the virtual disk. The Windows 10 virtual disk will be copied into a new virtual disk in your Windows 11 VM. Making a copy will keep your original VM intact.

Now when you boot Windows 11, you will see your old VM's virtual disk as another drive letter on your Windows 11 VM.  You may copy any files out of it that you need onto your Windows 11 VM's boot drive.

[dlhendel]

Thank you for the information and links.  However, before I spend the time to read everything, I have a couple of questions:- Do I need to purchase a copy of Fusion 13 or can I just upgrade Fusion Professional 12.2.5?  Do I need to purchase a copy of Windows 11 ARM?

I ask this because I'm not sure I want to go to all the expense to to access some files on a Windows VM.  Currently, I don't do much on the Windows VM and some applications I can move to the Mac.

Thanks for any help with this.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Fusion 13 has a free non-commercial use license.  If it's commercial then you should pay for an upgrade.

We do expect an upgrade, with a new tech preview, coming sometime soon, but it's a coin flip if it'll be a free upgrade when it's released or paid.

You can build a windows 11 VM and not activate it, but your Windows 10 key should activate it.

Oh, and note, there are no shared folders yet (we expect that in the tech preview) so to extract the files, use network sharing or attach an EXFat formatted thumb drive or other hard drive directly to the VM.

[hadjer1 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Just Copy the .vmdk file and then use an archive manager like 7zip, right click on the VMDK and then extract the files, because at the end of the day the vmdk file is just an archive. Once the extraction is over you can navigate in the extracted files and find the documents you need.

KUDO if you find my answer useful or mark as solution if it solves your problem.

[ColoradoMarmot]

That is not correct.

[RDPetruska]

Dave,

While the poster's comment about a vmdk file being merely an archive, it IS actually readable/extractable with 7-zip.  You cannot WRITE and modify the contents of the virtual disk file, but you CAN read from it.  So, if all the OP wants to do is extract files/folders from the virtual disk, that MAY be all they need to do.

[hadjer1]

Hello @ColoradoMarmot ,

Can you please explain which part of my answer is wrong?

By definition an archive is a file that regroupes many files, so a vmdk is considered a special format of archive and please note that archive doesn't mean compression

As for the methode that I proposed, if the vmdk is not encrypted, you can extract the files from it by using 7zip and I have done that many times before and as @RDPetruska said if the user needs just to get back some files form the VM why would they bother if they can just get them back from the extracted files?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Yes, but the archiver would have to understand the archive file format - vmdk is special, and very different from something like zip or rar.

If I'm wrong, and 7zip does understand the vmdk format,  I stand corrected, but I've never heard that before (and have been around these forums for a very long time).

[hadjer1]

@ColoradoMarmoteasy to check ! Just create a VM in workstation and then try to extract files from the vmdk, if it works for you, then it is a new trick in your collection !

[dlhendel]

I just looked for 7-Zip and apparently it is only for Windows, which really doesn't help since I can't run windows as a virtual machine any more.

[Technogeezer]

There is a 7zip command utility for macOS, but I haven't found a magic incantation that will allow it to extract a file out of the vmdk. If I try to list contents of the .vmdk file, it comes back with the GPT partitions that are available in the virtual disk. 

It's not that hard to build a Windows (or Linux) VM and attach the vmdk to the VM, mount the ntfs file system, and extract away...

[TECH198]

Actually it does...

There is no ARM license outside Microsoft.. I just bought a license key for x86 Intel, and it activated Windows 11 arm no problem on running Fusion 13.0.2 on my M1 Mac.

These days, it should ...  No point in having seperate licenses anymore, when we have digital keys nowadays.

[Technogeezer]

I believe that Microsoft has clarified that Windows 10/11 licenses don’t differentiate by platform. There’s no differentiation  in any of their documentation - for example they say for system requirements that you need a compatible 64-bit processor.

The puzzling thing is that they still don’t have a publicly available installer ISO download for ARM like they do for x64. 

[dlhendel]

It appears my dilemma has been solved.  I managed to borrow a Windows laptop and I installed VMware Player on it and copied my virtual machine files to it.  When I tried to open my Windows 10 vm, it wanted to know where the Windows 7 vm was.  I pointed to it.  Apparently, when I created Windows 10, it was linked to Windows 7?

When Player started up Windows 10, the Windows 10 startup page appeared, but then it switched to the Windows 7 startup and Windows 7 started.  That didn't help and I couldn't find a way to mount another file.

I then downloaded 7-Zip and opened the file and lo and behold, there were my files.  I copied them to a local drive and they all appear to be there.  I haven't yet tried to open a sampling of them, but I feel good about it.

Thanks to all for you assistance with this issue.

[RuthGracia]

Thanks for sharing this useful thread. I am searching for such information and resource to extract data files from the .vmwarevm files. So I have found it really useful to me.

[dlhendel]

Don't get too excited about the solution, at least in my case.  I started looking at the files, and they are from the Windows 7 vm, not my Windows 10 vm.  I't going into TimeMachine to see if I can find the Windows 10 files.

[Technogeezer]

Time Machine has nothing to do with Windows files and if you used it to back up the VMs on your Mac, I would keep my fingers crossed. Time Machine is a notoriously problematic method for backing up Fusion VMs. Also if you have linked clones or snapshots, that’s a more complicated situation.

It almost sounds like you had snapshots in your VM and you’re trying to access an older snapshot. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

It sound like you should have two separate .vmwarevm bundles somewhere on your machine - one for the win 10 vm and one for the win 7.

As @Technogeezer notes, TM is notoriously unreliable for bundled files like VM's.  If you do end up restoring, strongly suggest that you restore to a different location than originally used to make sure you don't clobber something.

[dlhendel]

I actually had 4 vms on my working version of Fusion (Windows NT, Windows XP Pro, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows 10).  I think when I created the Win10 vm, I built it on the Win7 vm (when my machine crapped out and I tried to open the Win10 vm, it wants to know where the Win7 vm files were).

I went back to a few days before my machine crapped out and restored the Windows 10.vmwarevm from TimeMachine.  Inside the package is a file called Windows 7.vmdk (there were no other vmdk files in there.  All the other Virtual Machines either only had a single vmdk file or multiple vmdk files because I created the vms without a specified file allocation size).  I copied that file to a Windows laptop and using 7-Zip, I was able to open the file and found my files.

So, yes, 7-Zip will expand VMware *.vmdk files.  You just have to find the correct vmdk file to start with.

Since I can't run  Fusion on my M1 iMac any more, I really don't care about clobbering something.