Run a check:
Corruption often involves the or a broken snapshot chain .
Add the suspect VMDK as an additional disk to a known-working VM. If the host OS cannot see the partition, the corruption is structural.
If you are comfortable with Command Prompt or Terminal, this is the first tool you should reach for. If you need a "Next, Next, Finish" wizard, you will need to look at paid third-party alternatives.
: Abruptly turning off a VM or host server during write operations can damage the file system or guest OS journal.
If the tool succeeds, the new VMDK is usable. This works for many descriptor and sparse metadata issues.
If the VM won't start, the descriptor is often the culprit. Administrators use tools like WinSCP to browse the datastore and open the .vmdk in a text editor to check for missing parameters or incorrect disk geometry. 2. The Manual Repair: Rebuilding the Header