Flat Vmdk Recovery !link! Jun 2026

vmkfstools -i /path/to/source-flat.vmdk /path/to/destination.vmdk -d thin

A "flat" VMDK (e.g., server-flat.vmdk ) is the raw binary file that holds all your virtual machine's actual data, while the smaller .vmdk file is just a text-based "descriptor" that tells VMware how to read it. If you only have the flat file, you cannot boot the VM, but your data is likely still intact. Core Recovery Strategy: Rebuilding the Descriptor flat vmdk recovery