SNAPSHOT Files separately mountable?? Workstation 8

[zaphod2]

Hello!

Because of multiple circumstances I have lost several files in VM's directory.

The VM consists of:

MONTEVELO_Disk1.vmdk

MONTEVELO_Disk1-flat.vmdk

MONTEVELO_Disk1-000001.vmdk

MONTEVELO_Disk1-000002.vmdk

MONTEVELO_Disk1-00000n.vmdk

and other files.

Now after blue screen of the host, the shapshotfiles "MONTEVELO_Disk1-000001.vmdk" and "MONTEVELO_Disk1-000002.vmdk"

have 0kb.

Is it possible to mount these files separately from a older backup to take single files out of them?

Yours

Holger

[a_p_]

Snapshot files in VMware products only contain modified blocks which means it's always required to have a consistent disk chain. From how I understand your issue you do have several snapshots and lost two of them which are somewhere in the middle of the chain. In this case it might be as easy as just restoring the two files to repair the chain.

Do you still have a vmware.log file from the time before the crash happened. If yes, please attach this file as well as the current .vmx and .vmsd file to your next post.

André

[zaphod2]

Hello André,

actually the situation looks like beeing shown in the attachment.

After bluesreen of the win7 64bit host it runs automatically into chkdisk.

Unfortunately I don't have the 0kb files from one backup. Only from

different older backups. After merging everything together the VM is

not starting. The c: partition remains empty.

Perfect would be to "look into" DISK2-000002.vmdk".

Yours

Holger

[a_p_]

I'm missing the base disk "MONTEVELO_DISK2.vmdk" in the screen shot. Is this virtual disk stored somewhere else?

When you right-click "MONTEVELO_DISK2-000002.vmdk", do you see a "Map Virtual Disk..." option?

André

[zaphod2]

... disk2 is on another harddrive.

No, there is no map- option when right-clicking (see message attached).

There is another complexity layer: The VM is encrypted. Even in Workstation 8 it is not

possible to map encrypted disks. I hoped to get this feature in the new version.

Yours

Holger

[a_p_]

Is there any chance you can boot the VM from a Live CD to see whether you can access the files on the virtual disks?

If not you'll need to be patient and hope that continuum (http://sanbarrow.com/) reads this discussion. He might have some more ideas.

André

[continuum]

Hi
can you post a screenshot of the directory with the missing disk2 basedisk

please also create a backup of the vmx-file - do not edit the vmx-file !!!
without that file all data is lost

Did you use the VMware feature to encrypt the VM or did you use truecrypt or something else ?

With VMware encryption the only chance is to recreate the full VM - reading disks or snapshots alone is impossible.

Among us - I would not even consider to use VMware encryption - we all know how often vmx-files are wiped blank and if that file is lost all data is lost too.

[zaphod2]

Hello!

attached there is a picture of disk2 directory. Snapshots of disk2 seemed to be stored in the  base directory, too.

I will try to boot from a cd to search for the data.

I used vmware- buildin encryption. For that moment it was easy to handle. But without possibility

to map an encrypted disk I will think about this again. Does bitlocker works within a VM? Is

the TPM accessable? Do you have good experience with truecrypt and encrypted partitions?

Thanks for that moment!

Holger

[continuum]

Hi Holger

recovering any data from your vmdks is very tricky.
We would have to create a fake version of  the corrupted first basedisk.
This is not easy - not at all :smileyplain:

I see you use a german computer - so I would suggest we can continue this discussion via telephone.
Send me a PM with your phone number und ich meld mich dann bei dir.

about Truecrypt ...
yes - TC works nicely inside a VM and it has the major advantage that each vmdk can be used independant of the VM.
So it is way safer than the VMware encryption

[zaphod2]

Hello,

here are some new results:

- To add a snapshot like a disk is not possible.

- After adding the Basic- Disk I can access the data, but at the original state. Seems that snapshots are not used.

Holger

[continuum]

>  - To add a snapshot like a disk is not possible.

thats not the full story - a skilled user who knows the complete history of the VM can access files even if the basedisk is lost

>  - After adding the Basic- Disk I can access the data, but at the original state. Seems that snapshots are not used.

dont do that - unless the data inside the snapshots is worthless.
If you want to get back the state of the snapshots do not use the basedisk stand alone.

[zaphod2]

... I was sending you an email to your webmaster adress.

Yours

Holger

[continuum]

a PM would have reached me earlier