Virtualization Data Recovery for Virtual Disks using VMware, Hyper-V & More

Expert Virtualization Data Recovery

Unlike traditional hard drive data recovery, virtualized environments pose unique, more complex challenges for restoring lost data. Virtual servers host multiple operating systems on a single physical machine by dividing and assigning shared resources, such as compute, memory, and disk storage, to each virtual system. This architecture increases the risk of data loss scenarios that can impact one or more virtual machines at once. No matter the type of failure, our team has extensive experience with these cases and is prepared to deliver a tailored recovery solution for your virtual environment. Some of our advanced recovery solutions include:

• Identifying and isolating the specific virtual disk or VM instance affected within a pool of multiple virtual machines
• Recovering data from corrupted or fragmented virtual disk files, such as VMDK, VHD, VHDX

• Repairing logical corruption within the file systems hosted on virtual disks
• Repairing errors caused by snapshot chains or delta files, including consolidating or recovering from incomplete or orphaned snapshots
• Handling failures or data loss resulting from improper VM migrations, rollbacks, or cloning operations
• Reconstructing virtual disks when the underlying physical storage is degraded, part of a failed RAID array, or is experiencing hardware errors
• Decrypting or recovering data from encrypted virtual disks without proper keys or metadata
• Extracting data from virtual disks with damaged partition tables or boot records
• Decoding proprietary or undocumented virtual disk formats used by different hypervisors or storage vendors

Call us today at 800-388-1288 to schedule your free evaluation. With locations across the country and global coverage, we deliver fast, secure support for virtual machine and virtual disk recovery, no matter where your business operates.

Virtual Disk Recovery Challenges We Specialize In

Many virtualized environments and storage systems rely on multi-disk RAID configurations to provide redundancy and data protection. Despite these safeguards, data remains vulnerable to a variety of unexpected failures. Events such as power interruptions, human error, RAID-level issues, physical hardware damage, storage device degradation, or environmental incidents can result in significant data loss, affecting both individual virtual machines and the underlying infrastructure.

Below are some of the most frequent causes of failure in virtualized storage environments:

• RAID controller failure and configuration errors
• SAN & NAS Hardware Failure
• Corruption of VHDX, VHD, or VMDK virtual disk files
• Physical disk failure within the storage array

• Failed or incomplete VM migrations, snapshots, or clones
• Power outages or unexpected shutdowns
• File system corruption inside guest or host systems
• Software errors or compatibility issues in the hypervisor
• Ransomware or malware attacks
• Accidental file deletion or misconfiguration
• Environmental factors like overheating, flooding, or fire

If you suspect a virtual disk or virtual machine failure, the most important action is to immediately power down the affected VM or host and stop all write operations. Attempting to reboot or troubleshoot the issue yourself can aggravate the problem and lead to permanent data loss. For the best chance of a complete recovery, consult with a professional data recovery service experienced in virtual environments.

Immediate Steps to Take if Your Virtual Machine Is Down

Every hypervisor platform has its own architecture and unique set of features, so recovery steps can vary depending on the environment. The actions outlined above are general guidelines; always consult platform-specific documentation or an expert for best results.

• Stop all write operations to the affected virtual machine and underlying storage.
• Check the hardware for any issues, such as extreme heat or cold, virtual memory performance, CPU processor, and data storage.
• Do not attempt to reboot, repair, or restore the VM without first assessing the cause of failure.
• Check the hypervisor and system logs for any error messages or warnings related to the VM.

• Review recent changes or operations, such as snapshots, backups, or migrations, that may have affected the VM.
• If possible, create a backup or image of the current state of the virtual disk before making any changes.

Your Data is Safe & Secure With Us

Our verified and secure process safeguards your data at every stage of recovery, including the secure destruction of damaged devices.

We undergo regular SSAE 18 audits to demonstrate how we store and manage data while restoring files. Furthermore, we adopt the latest strategies to defend against cyber threats. Our team also follows FIPS-validated data handling practices from start to finish.

We even return your data on encrypted drives or over secure servers to prevent unauthorized access in transit. It shows our commitment to ensuring personal and private data stays that way.

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Professional VMware Data Recovery Services

VMware enables IT administrators to run multiple virtual machines with different operating systems on a single physical server, each with customized resources. However, a single failure can impact all hosted VMs and disrupt essential operations.

We offer specialized VMware data recovery services for all types of servers and virtualized environments, including vSphere, ESXi, Fusion, and vSAN. Our certified engineers have in-depth experience recovering data from virtual machines in both cross-platform and enterprise-scale deployments. Using advanced recovery hardware and forensic-grade software, we can extract VMDK files along with vital metadata, even in complex failure scenarios. We understand that minimizing downtime and preventing data loss is critical for your business.

Rely on our expertise and proven track record to deliver fast, secure, and comprehensive VMware data recovery when your virtual infrastructure is at risk.

How To Recover Virtual Drives

If your virtual disk appears to be the correct size but cannot be accessed with standard commands, you may be able to recover it yourself with the right tools, potentially saving time and expense. Secure Data Recovery’s software team has created internal tools now available in a user-friendly commercial version that help repair, rebuild, and reassemble virtual disk data. SecureRecovery® Virtual Disk Repair Software empowers users to fix data corruption on their own and supports the following:

• Virtual Disks Made With Xen and Citrix XenSource, Including Citrix XenServer and Citrix Xen
• VMDK Disks Created With QEMU and Sun xVM VirtualBox
• Binary Disk or Partition Dump (RAW, IMG)
• Deleted VMs, snapshots, or deleted files from within a VM
• VHD Disks Created in Microsoft Hyper-V, VirtualPC, and Sun xVM VirtualBox
• VirtualBox guest operating systems (Windows, Linux, or BSD)
• VHD Disks Created in Microsoft Hyper-V, VirtualPC, and Sun xVM VirtualBox
• VMDK Disks Made With VMware Workstation, Virtual Desktop, VMware Player, VMware Server, VMware ESX Server, VSphere, and VMware ESXI
• Virtual Hard Disk (*.vhd), Fixed, Differencing, and Dynamic
• Virtual Machine Disk (*.vmdk), monolithicSparse and monolithicFlat
• Xen Virtual Appliance VM Import (*.xva and *.ova)
• Recovery for Snapshot Disks of Virtual Machine Disk Files (*.vmdk)

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