Repairing a virtual disk in Fusion 3.1 and Workstation 7.1

Symptoms

•The virtual machine fails to start after a forced Mac shutdown or host shutdown.

•The virtual machine does not boot up after a crash.

•When starting the virtual machine, you see the error:

Cannot open the disk '<path to virtual machine>/<virtual disk.vmdk>' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: The specified virtual disk needs repair.

•When trying to mount the virtual disk with VMDKMounter, you see the error:

There is a problem trying to mount the virtual disk.

•When trying to repair the virtual disk using vmware-vdiskmanager, you see the error:

The virtual disk is corrupted but the repair process has failed.

Resolution
This issue is resolved in Fusion 3.1.1 and Workstation 7.1.1. VMware recommends you to upgrade to the latest version of Fusion/Workstation.

To download the latest version of Fusion, see the Download Center for Fusion.
To download the latest version of Workstation, see the Download Center for Workstation.

This issue occurs because the virtual disk repair utility ( vmware-vdiskmanager) in Fusion 3.1 and Workstation 7.1 does not work as expected.

To resolve this issue, you must upgrade to the latest version of Fusion / Workstation, or use the utility from Fusion 3.0.2 / Workstation 7.0.1.

Fusion
To begin using the virtual disk repair utility from Fusion 3.0.2:
   1.Download and unzip the attached 1023856-vdiskmanager-3.0.2.zip file.
   2.Copy the vmware-vdiskmanager file to [Macintosh HD]/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion.
   3.When you see the warning the item ... can't be moved, click Authenticate.
   4.Type your Mac OS password, and click OK.
   5.Shut down virtual machines that are running and quit Fusion.
   6.Restart your Mac.
   7.You need to manually repair your virtual disk, using the utility you just downloaded. For details, see Repairing a virtual disk in Fusion (1023888).

Workstation

Linux
To begin using the virtual disk repair utility from Workstation 7.0.1:
   1.Download and unzip the attached 1023856-vdiskmanager-linux-7.0.1.zip file.
   2.Expand the compressed file, and rename it to vmware-vdiskmanager .
   3.Copy the vmware-vdiskmanager file to /usr/bin.
   4.Shut down any virtual machines that are running and quit Workstation.
   5.Restart your computer.
   6.Manually repair your virtual disk using the utility you just downloaded:

      a.Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).

      b.Run this command:

         /usr/bin/vmware-vdiskmanager -R <virtual disk.vmdk>

         Where <virtual disk.vmdk> is the virtual disk that appeared in the error message.

Windows
To begin using the virtual disk repair utility from Workstation 7.0.1:

   1.Download and unzip the attached 1023856-vdiskmanager-windows-7.0.1.zip file.
   2.Expand the compressed file, and rename it to vmware-vdiskmanager. exe.
   3.Copy the vmware-vdiskmanager. exe file to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation. For 64-bit operating systems, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation.
   4.Shut down any virtual machines that are running and quit Workstation.
   5.Restart Windows.
   6.Manually repair your virtual disk using the utility you just downloaded:

      a.Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).

      b.Enter this command:

         vmware-vdiskmanager -R <virtual disk.vmdk>

         Where <virtual disk.vmdk> is the virtual disk that appeared in the error message.

         Note: The path was probably set correctly by the Workstation installation, but you might have to change to the directory where you installed Virtual Disk Manager (in step 3).

If the issue persists:
   •Collect the Fusion Support Information / Workstation Support Data. For more information, see Collecting diagnostic information for VMware Fusion (1003894) or the relevant section of the Workstation User Manual.
   •Contact VMware Support and reference this Knowledge Base article in the problem description of your support request. For more information, see How to Submit a Support Request.

Update History
07/20/2010 - Added Workstation instructions and attachments
08/16/2010 - Added information about updated versions 09/24/2010 - Added disk repair instructions for Windows/Linux

Attachments
•1023856-vdiskmanager-3.0.2.zip
•1023856-vdiskmanager-linux.7.0.1.zip
•1023856-vdiskmanager-windows-7.0.1.exe.zip