Virtual Machine Data Recovery — VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox & VirtualBox
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Lost data? Stop using the device and act now — early action is the biggest factor in successful recovery.
✔ Free file list before you pay · ✔ Free phone assessment · ✔ ISO-5 Class 100 clean room · ✔ 20+ years experience
Virtual machine failures can bring down entire server environments, applications and hosted workloads in an instant. Whether your VMware ESXi datastore went offline, your Hyper-V VHD files were accidentally deleted, your Proxmox VE cluster suffered a storage failure, or ransomware encrypted your entire virtualisation host, The Original PC Doctor recovers virtual machine data from every major hypervisor platform without requiring a working hypervisor environment.
We recover VMDK, VHD, VHDX, QCOW2, VDI and RAW virtual disk files — and crucially, we understand the relationship between the virtual disk format and the guest operating system inside it, allowing us to recover guest file systems and data as well as the raw virtual disk files.
VM failure? Call 1300 723 628 — 24/7 emergency response for production environments.
Hypervisor Platforms We Support
Virtual Machine Failure Scenarios
- VMware VMFS datastore offline or corrupted — the VMFS volume hosting the VM files is no longer accessible from ESXi. We recover the VMFS structure from the underlying RAID or disk array and extract all VM files.
- VMDK file corrupted or shows incorrect size (0 bytes) — VMDK descriptor corruption, missing extent files, or truncated virtual disk data. We reconstruct the VMDK structure and recover the guest filesystem.
- Snapshot chain broken or consolidation failed — VMware snapshot delta files (.vmdk-00000n) that failed to consolidate, leaving the VM in an unbootable state with a broken snapshot chain. We reconstruct the snapshot chain and merge deltas.
- ESXi host failed — VMs need to be recovered without running ESXi — the physical ESXi host is dead but the storage array is intact. We extract VMDK files directly and recover guest data without a running ESXi host.
- Hyper-V VHD/VHDX files accidentally deleted — virtual disk files deleted from the Hyper-V host. Standard file recovery of VHD/VHDX files, followed by guest filesystem recovery if the VHD is corrupted.
- Hyper-V checkpoint (snapshot) failure — checkpoint merge failed, VM checkpoints grew to fill disk, or the AVHD/AVHDX chain is broken. We reconstruct and merge the checkpoint chain.
- Proxmox VE ZFS pool offline or degraded — ZFS pool hosting VM storage went offline due to drive failures or corruption. ZFS pool reconstruction and VM file extraction.
- Proxmox Ceph cluster degraded or data unavailable — Ceph distributed storage used by Proxmox becoming partially unavailable. We work with your IT team to recover from Ceph RADOS objects.
- VM storage migration failed midway — Storage vMotion, Hyper-V live migration, or Proxmox VM migration that failed mid-process, leaving the VM in an inconsistent state across old and new storage.
- Ransomware encrypted all VM files on the host — VMDK, VHD, QCOW2 files encrypted. We assess for VSS shadows of the storage volume, VMware snapshot remnants, and backup catalog files that may be recoverable.
- vSAN or Ceph storage cluster node failures — distributed storage systems where multiple node failures breach fault tolerance. We work with distributed storage specialists for these complex cases.
Virtual Disk Formats We Support
Guest OS Recovery from Virtual Disks
Recovering the virtual disk file is only the first step. If the guest operating system inside the VM was also corrupted or affected by the failure, we perform guest-level recovery as well:
- Windows guest — we mount the VMDK/VHDX and perform Windows file system recovery (NTFS), Active Directory database recovery, SQL Server database recovery, Exchange EDB recovery, or targeted file recovery from within the virtual disk
- Linux guest — we mount the virtual disk and recover from ext4, XFS, Btrfs or ZFS guest filesystems. We can also recover Linux application data including MySQL, PostgreSQL and application configuration
- Database server VMs — we specialise in recovering SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle and PostgreSQL databases that were running inside VMs — combining VM recovery with database-level extraction
Our Recovery Process
- Emergency phone assessment — call 1300 723 628 and describe the hypervisor platform, storage configuration (local disk, NAS, SAN, vSAN), failure mode, and business impact. We’ll advise immediate safe steps.
- Remote or on-site triage — for critical production environments we can connect remotely or dispatch on-site to assess the situation before any hardware is moved.
- Storage device imaging — all storage devices hosting VM files are imaged to forensic clones. We never work on originals.
- Virtual disk file recovery — we extract VM files (VMDK, VHD, QCOW2 etc.) from the recovered storage image, including reconstruction of VMFS, ZFS or LVM volumes as needed.
- Virtual disk repair and guest recovery — corrupted virtual disk files are repaired where possible. Guest OS filesystems are mounted and data is extracted.
- Delivery or restoration — recovered VMs or guest data are delivered on hard drives, restored directly to new infrastructure, or provided as portable VM images ready for import into a new host.
Free Resources
Independent, non-commercial references:
Get your data back — free file list, free phone assessment. Talk to a specialist today.
✔ Free file list before you pay · ✔ Free phone assessment · ✔ ISO-5 Class 100 clean room · ✔ 20+ years experience
FAQs — Virtual Machine Data Recovery
How much does VM recovery cost?
VM recovery from accessible but corrupted virtual disk files (VMDK, VHDX corruption, snapshot chain issues) typically starts at $1,000–$2,500 AUD. Cases involving physical storage failure or RAID reconstruction underneath the VM storage add the physical recovery cost. vSAN and Ceph distributed storage cases are quoted on a project basis. Call 1300 723 628 for an immediate assessment.
Can you recover a VM without a running ESXi or Hyper-V host?
Yes — we don’t need a working hypervisor environment to recover virtual machine data. We work directly on the VMDK, VHDX or QCOW2 files as binary files, extracting the guest filesystem and data without mounting them in a live hypervisor. This means we can recover VM data even when the physical host is completely dead.
My VMware snapshot consolidation failed and the VM won’t boot — what do I do?
Stop any further operations on the VM immediately. Don’t attempt another consolidation or power cycle the VM. Snapshot chain corruption is recoverable but can be made worse by repeated failed consolidation attempts. We reconstruct the snapshot chain by analysing the VMDK descriptor files and delta file relationships, then merge the chain into a consistent virtual disk.
Can you recover the data inside a VM without restoring the entire VM?
Yes. If you only need specific files, folders, or a specific application’s data (e.g. the SQL Server databases from a failed Windows Server VM), we can extract just that data from the virtual disk without needing to restore or boot the entire VM. This is often faster, simpler and less expensive than a full VM restoration.
Ransomware encrypted all our VMDKs — is any recovery possible?
We assess several recovery vectors: Windows VSS shadow copies of the datastore volume (often targeted by ransomware but worth checking), VMware snapshots taken before the encryption event (check your vCenter snapshot manager), backup catalog files and configuration that may be unencrypted, and partial plaintext recovery from un-overwritten disk sectors. If you have a decryption key, we perform decryption, VMDK repair and guest OS recovery in one process. Call us immediately after the event — time matters.
Call 1300 723 628 for free expert advice — or book online now.
