Recover Deleted Vmdk From Datastore [verified] (Reliable HOW-TO)

Use a tool that understands the VMFS file system (like Diskinternals VMFS Recovery or Stellar Data Recovery for VM) to scan the raw sectors of the LUN.

If you have VMware snapshots enabled, you might be able to recover the VMDK: recover deleted vmdk from datastore

If you have regular backups: