Shut down the ESXi host, do not touch anything, and hire a professional data recovery service that specializes in VMware VMFS (e.g., Gillware, Ontrack, Fields Data Recovery). Expect to pay $1,500–$5,000.
| Tool | Best For | Notes | |------|----------|-------| | (bootable) | VMFS5, VMFS6 | Scans raw sectors, reconstructs -flat.vmdk | | UFS Explorer RAID Recovery | Complex storage, RAIDs | Industry standard for VMware recovery | | DiskInternals VMFS Recovery | Simple deletions | Less expensive | | Klennix VMFS Recovery | Extremely damaged/corrupt VMFS | Forensic-level | recover deleted flat vmdk file
lsof | grep -i "deleted" If you see your -flat.vmdk listed as (deleted) , the file is still open by a running VM. (force power off). The file will be released, and you may lose it forever unless you use advanced recovery tools (rare). Proceed to Step 2. Shut down the ESXi host, do not touch
SSH into the ESXi host. Run: