[Solved] This File Is Required to Power on This Virtual Machine

Case: this file is required to power on this virtual machine

VMware Workstation is one of the most popular and convenient type-2 hypervisors for individual users and small businesses. It provides an intuitive guide, allowing you to create a complete functional virtual machine in an easy cost-effective way.

However, there are times you may encounter some errors while running a virtual machine. For example, the error: “File not found. This file is required to power on this virtual machine”

What causes this error and how to fix it? This article will explain it for you.

Cause of error “this file is required to power on this virtual machine”

So, what causes your virtual machine failed to power on? Take a look at the error description. It indicates you that there is a vmdk file that make up this virtual machine is missing.

The cause is usually that the antivirus scan application has quarantined one of the .vmdk files, or there is also possibility that you accidentally deleted it. For example, you accidentally deleted a huge snapshot file to make storage space.

If you backed up this VMware Workstation VM, things are very easy. You just need to restore the VM or the files and get it back to the VM folder. But if you didn’t, things will be a little more tricker. Sometimes you can get this file back and sometimes you cannot.

First you need to figure out what is the file you lost or deleted. Let’s take snapshot as an example.

What happens when you taking and deleting a VMware snapshot

Taking a VMware snapshot will create the following files:

• VMname.vmsd: a snapshot list file that stores the names, descriptions, and relationships of all snapshots. It is created with the VM, and appears in the VM directory whether or not a snapshot exists.
• VMname-00000#-delta.vmdk: a differencing disk file created when the snapshot is taken. Taking a snapshot will preserve the state of the VM and stop writing to the VMname-flat.vmdk file, all later writes will be redirected to VMname-00000#-delta.vmdk.
• VMname-00000#.vmdk: a disk descriptor file that contains information about the snapshot and its disk. It is created for each snapshot when they are taken, and updates the parent disk information. For the first snapshot, the parent is the base disk, for subsequent snapshots, the parent is the previous snapshot disk.
• VMname-snasphot#.vmsn: a snapshot state file that stores the state of the VM when the snapshot was taken. It is created with snapshot and deleted when the snapshot is properly deleted. The size will increase if you selected the Memory option.
• VMname-snapshot#.vmem: contains all the contents of the VM's memory when the snapshot was taken, created only if you select the Memory option.

If you accidentally deleted VMname-00000#.vmdk files (the disk descriptor file) from the VM folder, you won’t lose the data, but still not be able to open the VM and displayed with the error. However, it is possible to fix it by recreating the descriptor file.

Next, I will show you the specific steps to do this.

Before you start, please backup VMware Workstation VM to avoid data loss.

How to fix error “this file is required to power on this virtual machine”

To fix this error, first you need to check whether all files that make up the virtual disk are present in the VM’s folder. And then get the missing file back or find a way to recreate a file to replace it.

For example, if you only deleted the snapshot descriptor files (file name: VMname-00000#.vmdk), you can recover the deleted snapshot by recreating the descriptor files. Next, I will show you the detailed steps.

1. Launch VMware Workstation, move the cursor to the name of the target VM. There will be a box showing the folder path where the virtual disk files and configuration files of this system are stored.

2. Come to the folder, and then check whether all files that make up the virtual disk are here.

Tip: Or you can take a deeper look at the VMware.log file to see if there was a message reporting a missing VMDK file.

3. Open the vmdk files with Notepad, to find the parent disk and file name of the missing snapshot file.

4. Copy one of the snapshot descriptor files and rename it with the name of the deleted snapshot.

Here I copied snapshot1 for recovering deleted snapshot2 as a demonstration.

5. Open the copied file with Notepad, and change the values of parentFileNameHint=" VMname.vmdk" with the parent disk name of the deleted snapshot, and values of RW 12582912 VMFSSPARSE "Windows Demo-00000#-delta.vmdk" with the file name of the deleted snapshot delta disk name.

For example, my snapshot2’s parent is snapshot1, so I change parentFileNameHint=" Windows Demo.vmdk" into parentFileNameHint=" Windows Demo-000001.vmdk"

And change RW 12582912 VMFSSPARSE "Windows Demo-000001-delta.vmdk" into RW 12582912 VMFSSPARSE "Windows Demo-000002-delta.vmdk"

6. Upload the deleted snapshot descriptor file to the target VM folder in Datastore. Now you can see that you’ve recovered the deleted .vmdk file and the VM can be powered on.

Summary

Have you ever got the error “File not found vmdk This file is required to power on this virtual machine” when starting a VM on VMware Workstation, Player, or Fusion? This error is caused by the mission vmdk file indicated in the error description.

To fix this error, you only need to find the missing file and get it back to the VM folder. If you accidentally deleted the vmdk file, for example, a snapshot descriptor file, you can recover deleted snapshot by recreating the file and change the parent and delta disk name values.