: Connect the physical storage (DAS/RAID) to a Windows machine, run a "Full Recovery" scan, and preview recovered files before saving them to a different location. Hetman RAID Recovery : Useful if the datastore was on a RAID array; it can virtually rebuild damaged RAIDs to locate lost virtual machine folders. BitRecover VMFS Recovery Tool : Offers specific modes for deleted and formatted VMFS partition recovery. Reddit +7 4. Recovery via Snapshots (For Running VMs) If a VM is still running but its base VMDK was deleted, you may be able to use existing snapshots to rebuild the disk: Broadcom Community +1 Consolidate Snapshots
If your file isn't in the Trash folder, or if you're dealing with a more complex scenario: recover deleted vmdk file from datastore
Recovery strategy depends on the deletion method: : Connect the physical storage (DAS/RAID) to a
Several third-party tools can help in recovering deleted files from datastores: Reddit +7 4
The moment you realize a VMDK is missing from a datastore (typically VM power-on fails with "File not found" ), follow the golden rule of data recovery: