Undelete Vmfs File |verified| Site

Look for partition type 0xFB (VMFS).

Recovery is never 100% guaranteed. To avoid this situation in the future, implement a multi-layered protection strategy.

Expected header start (little-endian):

If you were running on snapshots, the "base" VMDK might be intact while only the most recent changes (delta files) were lost. Phase 2: Manual Recovery via Command Line

Use vCenter permissions to restrict who can "Delete from Disk" versus "Remove from Inventory." undelete vmfs file

ls -la /mnt/vmfs

When you delete a file via vSphere or ESXi shell: Look for partition type 0xFB (VMFS)

vmkfstools -U /vmfs/volumes/datastore/path/to/deleted.file