How To Recover A Deleted Vmdk File From A Datastore Jun 2026

Recovering a deleted VMDK file from a VMware datastore can be a high-stakes task, especially if the file contains critical business data. While VMware’s VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) does not have a built-in "Recycle Bin," recovery is often possible depending on how quickly you act and whether you have backups or snapshots available.

If you have a recent backup, restore from there—it’s faster and safer. how to recover a deleted vmdk file from a datastore

Use vmkfstools to create a new temporary disk with the exact same size and format: vmkfstools -c [SIZE] -d thin temp.vmdk Recovering a deleted VMDK file from a VMware

: Run these from a separate Linux or Windows machine with the datastore mounted read-only. how to recover a deleted vmdk file from a datastore