Recover Deleted Vmdk From Datastore May 2026

The .vh.sf directory is a hidden system folder storing deleted file pointers. Not always persistent across reboots. 4.2. Recovery via vSphere CLI (vmkfstools) If the VMDK was a thin-provisioned or delta (snapshot) file :

# Navigate to datastore path cd /vmfs/volumes/DatastoreName/ ls -la .vh.sf/ If present, restore using vmkfstools vmkfstools -U "orphaned.vmdk" # Remove stale lock cp .vh.sf/deleted-file-pointer.vmdk ./restored.vmdk recover deleted vmdk from datastore

| Tool | Key Feature | |------|--------------| | | VMFS block-level scan, reconstructs VMDK from raw fragments | | UFS Explorer RAID Recovery | Excellent for SAN/NFS-backed datastores | | DiskInternals VMFS Recovery | Recovers VMDK even after datastore reformat | | Klennix VMFS Recovery | Supports VMFS3 to VMFS6, works with corrupted metadata | works with corrupted metadata |