Solved: Unable to attach the physical disk in VMWare Workstation 12

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tp-it-team

Unable to attach the physical disk in VMWare Workstation 12

Hello

I'm trying to attach a physical disk to my VM. I select a disk and point it where the VMDK files should be created and I get the error:

The file specified is not a virtual disk
Cannot open the disk 'C:\Folder\Server-5.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
Failed to power on 'scsi0:1'.
Failed to add disk 'scsi0:1'.
Could not add device scsi0:1.

What I am doing wrong ?

Thanks

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John🇨🇦

You have to use VMware Converter Standalone (free) to convert the physical disk into a VMware format machine. You cannot just open a physical disk.

Go to VMware.com, Downloads, download the converter and convert the physical disk. You can open the disk so created.

aravind anche🇺🇸

Are you getting any errors?
follow the below link
http://www.smartpctricks.com/2013/07/solved-how-to-mount-physical-drive-partitions-on-vmware.html

tp-it-team

ASKER

OK, so after running VMware Workstation as an admin, I was able to go one step further, add the disk and close the add hardware wizard. Unfortunately, when I switch on the VM, I get a message:

Error while powering on: Disk encoding error.

That hard drive looks absolutely fine to me, I can read files of it no problem.

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John🇨🇦

I am pretty sure you need to convert it first.

aravind anche🇺🇸

click on it, check whether Virtual machine sharing is Enabled or not,

tp-it-team

ASKER

John, adding physical disk doesn't require conversion, have a look here:
https://pubs.vmware.com/workstation-12/topic/com.vmware.ws.using.doc/GUID-BA557736-482C-42C1-BC52-C76673948D2F.html
And I did it in the past without a problem.
Seems to be some less known error as google doesn't give many results if I search the error message.

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tp-it-team

ASKER

dj 3094, I cannot find that option in vmware workstation.

John🇨🇦

I think that article applies to adding / viewing a physical disk. I always convert them. I have done that before.

tp-it-team

ASKER

Thanks John, I may try it if nothing else will work but still, I should be able to do it without conversion.

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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

Does this disk have snapshots attached, because moving disks with snapshots is not recommended, and you should merge the snapshots FIRST, or use VMware Converter, to get rid of all the snapshots.

So can we have a screenshot of the files you have ?

or sometimes, the error message is a read hearing, and it means..... your virtual machine disk is corrupted.

What is the source of the virtual machine - VMware Workstation ?

tp-it-team

ASKER

That new disk I'm attaching has nothing to do to VM and has no snapshots. Iy has Exchange databases on it. My VM is a virtual Exchange server in my lab.

John🇨🇦

Then the article you posted should work.

Error while powering on: Disk encoding error. <-- What kind of drive on what kind of machine? Is it a drive from a RAID set? If so, that may be the reason.

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tp-it-team

ASKER

No, it's a basic disk, easily readable in windows and it's 2TB so doesnt go above the limitation of VMWare Workstation 12.

John🇨🇦

I wonder if your VM plus the 2 TB exceeds your BIOS limit. Can you put the files on a smaller (say 1 TB) disk to see.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

so there is no C:\Folder\Server-5.vmdk file ?

you are adding a physical disk to a VM ?

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tp-it-team

ASKER

Exactly,adding existing physical basic, ntfs disk with some files to be used inside my VM

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

Has this ever worked for you ?

tp-it-team

ASKER

Sure

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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

the disk you are adding is not currently in use by the Host OS ?

and the disk is unassigned from the Host OS, to ensure no OS locks are present on the disk.

e.g. no drive letter assigned.

tp-it-team

ASKER

Correct

Maybe we should focus on that error I'm getting - 'Error while powering on: Disk encoding error.'
Is it a known thing ?
Is the error indicating a specific problem or group of problems ?

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

Disk is marked as offline in the host OS ?

and you are running the VMware Workstation as Admin ? (Run as Admin).

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tp-it-team

ASKER

Yes, I run as Admin.
It doesn't matter if the disk is marked as offline or not - same thing happens.

And vmware documentation only states that the drive letter should be removed, nothing about switching disk into offline mode. I tried it anyway.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)🇬🇧

Do you require any further assistance, to help close this question and select an Answer ?

tp-it-team

ASKER

Well, not really a solution, but you spent time trying to help me. Thanks.

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VMware, a software company founded in 1998, was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies. VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture. Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.