Recover Virtual Machine From Flat Vmdk Link Jun 2026

This guide explains exactly how to recover a fully functional virtual machine from a flat VMDK file.

If you have ever browsed a VMware datastore, you have likely seen two files for a single virtual disk: a small .vmdk (descriptor file) and a large -flat.vmdk (raw data file). When the descriptor file is missing, corrupted, or accidentally deleted, the VM cannot be powered on or registered—even though your actual data is safe inside the -flat.vmdk . recover virtual machine from flat vmdk

| Mistake | Consequence | |---------|-------------| | Editing the flat file directly | Corruption of raw data | | Deleting the flat file to save space | Permanent data loss | | Using vmkfstools -i (clone) on flat file | Creates a new flat file, ignores existing | | Wrong sector count in manual descriptor | Disk appears with incorrect size | This guide explains exactly how to recover a

If you do not have access to a VMware ESXi host or vSphere client, you can use the vmkfstools command-line utility to recover the virtual machine. or accidentally deleted