Reading ESXI disk connected to Windows / Ubuntu Machine with SATA > USB

datastorevmware-esxi

I have a single hard drive that has ESXI on it and a 140GB datastore.

How can I using Windows or Live CD read the datastore and copy out the Virtual Machines that are located on it? I have a SATA > USB convertor and I can see a lot of partitions but I cant read the datastore. I presume since it is in a format my computer doesnt understand.

Initially I think the only way may be to stick it in a new machine, connect up with Sphere client and copy / download the VM's

Many Thanks

Best Answer

You should try running the Open Source VMFS driver to see if that lets you do what you need.

Related Solutions

Recovering ESXi datastore

Buy a new drive then, using a linux boot disk, dd the old drive (from USB) to the new drive:

dd if=/dev/sd<olddrive> of=/dev/sd<newdrive>

Because VMFS, the ESXi filesytem, is proprietary, you will not be able to find any drivers, or mount the drive to copy your vmdk files. This may change, and you can use adapters, but your best bet is to transfer your old ESXi disk to a new one, bit for bit.

Debian – How to tell if a disk is failing on ESXi / what do these errors mean

Those errors do indeed indicate one of the SATA drives has encountered enough bad blocks to run out of block-reallocation space. That drive is bad, and needs to be replaced. I'm not sure where in the vSphere client that information is displayed, but the log entries are pretty clear.

If your hardware allows it, a hot-swap should be doable. Otherwise, you're going to have to shut everything down to perform the change-out. If that VM hasn't shut itself down after 30 minutes, it's time to just hard-terminate it. It's risky, but if it is truly hung there isn't much for it.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Recovering ESXi datastore

Debian – How to tell if a disk is failing on ESXi / what do these errors mean

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