VMware Server VMX has encountered a problem

You can create a new virtual machine.  Use the existing vmdk file from the virtual machine that is giving you the error.  If the vmdk (the virtual disk) is ok this should resolve the issue

Thanks for the quick response..
I am not quite understanding it right. Do you mean I have to  re-install the windows XP professional (guest OS) again by going to
'File->New->Virtual Machine..' and provide the same directory path where the Guest OS is installed currently?

I have the guest OS installed in this path: E:\VMWindows\

If i try to create new VM and provide the same path It gives me following msg:

"The specified location appears to contain an existing virtual machine. Having two machines installed on the same location can cause problems including loss of data if two virtual machines have the same name. Would you like to continue with this location?"

I have few programs installed on my guest machine and I do not want to loose any data..

Thanks,
Gary

I am sorry I am new to using VMWare. In the current directory (E:\VMWindows\)
 where I have set the VM I see so many Virtual Disk File (if thats what is VMDK?).

Do I need to copy all of them to some other folder (say E:\XYZ) then re-install XP again in the current direcory (E:\VMWIndows\) and copy back the virtual disk files from XYZ to VMWindows direcory?

The screen shot shows how the current directory looks like now..
Please advice..

Thanks,
Gary
Screenshot.doc

Copy the whole folder to a new destination.  Once copied rename the old vmx file to vmx.old (before you do a screenshot and post).  You may also need to delete the .lck file as well.  

Now create a new virtual machine.  We will go into the the new vmx file and put in the disk it was using previously which should be in the the original vmx file (should have this in the screenshot of vmx file

I have copied all files from my original E:\VMWindows\ to E:\Virtual Windows folder. Also I have renamed the vmx file to .old in the new direcory as shown in the screen shot. I deleted the .lck file in the new folder. But I could not copy the following 1.7 Gb File from the old directory to the new destination:
564d994b-115e-0554-6a83-796f6f8e3381.vmem

Now from what I understand, I need to re-install the XP on to 'E:\VMWindows', copy the new vmx file from this folder and put it in E:\Virtual Windows Folder. Then open the VM in this new folder from VM Console?

Please confirm..

Thanks,

Screenshot1.doc

open the vmx.old with notepad and do a screen print.  Don't worry about the vmem file.  If the vmdk files are ok we don't need to reinstall windows.  What we are trying to do is create another vmx file.  The vmx file has all the bootup parameters such as where the virtual disks are, how the cd rom is setup, what type of scsi adapter we're using, etc...

If we can re-create one that matches the old one and attach a copy of the original virtual disk we may be able to get it up and running.

Here is the screen shot of vmx.old. Please let me know what to do next..

Thanks,
Gary


Screenshot3.doc

Finally I got it to working. I reconfigured the vmx file by creating a new VM on the existing directory. When I tried to boot the OS from the existing directory I still had the same problem. I copied the .vmx file in to another direcory where I had a copied all the disk files. This one worked fine and I havent lost any data. I deleted all the disk files  in the old one along with the directory itself.

Thank you very much for patiently walking me through this..

Gary

Worked Great! Thank you very much

No problem.  Just shutdown the virtual machines every now and then and make backups to a usb harddrive so that if your system goes down or the drive that you're running it from you'll havea good backup.