A VMDK consists of two parts: a small text descriptor file ( .vmdk ) and the large data file ( -flat.vmdk ). If only the descriptor is missing, the VM will disappear, but your data is 100% recoverable by recreating that text file. 3. Recreating a Missing VMDK Descriptor
Did you delete the or just one specific file ? Is the datastore on a local drive or a SAN/NAS ? What version of ESXi (e.g., 6.7, 7.0, 8.0) are you running?
The tool must perform the following steps:
Restrict the ability to "Delete from Disk" to only senior administrators.
If the above method doesn't work or you need more advanced features, you can use third-party tools:
# Validate VMDK descriptor content if is_descriptor: # Parse CID (Content ID) and parent CID try: lines = data.split(b'\n') cid = "unknown" for line in lines: if line.strip().startswith(b"CID"): cid = line.split(b'=')[1].strip().decode('utf-8') break