Restore Deleted Vmdk From Datastore Jun 2026

VMFS6 has a lightweight undelete feature for metadata.

Restoring a deleted VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) from a VMware datastore requires immediate action to prevent the deleted data from being overwritten by new storage operations. Depending on what exactly was deleted and your available backups, you can use several manual or software-based recovery methods. 1. Immediate Critical Actions restore deleted vmdk from datastore

: Connect to your ESXi host via SSH and navigate to the VM's folder. Run ls -l *-flat.vmdk to find the exact size in bytes. VMFS6 has a lightweight undelete feature for metadata

: Try to recall or find out the name of the VMDK and its associated VM. : Try to recall or find out the

If the VMDK was part of a VM that had snapshots:

: SSH into your ESXi host.

: If accessible, copy the VMDK to another location.