Failed to lock the file! VMWare virtual disk (vmdk)

Posted by Ivan

/ March 12, 2008 / 297 Comments

I copied one of my Windows XP virtual machine running on a VMWare Server 1.02 system locally to my workstation. After the files were copied I opened the vmx file with VMWare Workstation 6 and received the following error below after trying to start the virtual machine. The virrtual machine contained one snapshot on the VMWare Server.

Cannot open the disk ‘C:\VM-machines\Windows XP-001\Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk’ or one of the snapshot disks it depends on. Reason: Failed to lock the file.

Locate the virtual machine in Windows Explorer and delete any .lck folders

Start the virtual machine. If boot process will fail, try to Map the virtual hard disk to Z:\ for example.

I then disconnect the virtual hard disk and tried again. The virtual machine boot without any problem and my snapshot was still valid. Deleting the .lck folder saved me a lot of work.

September 23, 2011
Vissu

Thanks a lot that saved me a lot of time and also i thought i had to re create a virtual machine .
Thank u
September 27, 2011
fadi

thanks a lot hero
September 27, 2011
zeinab

Thanks ! saved me a lot of time!
September 27, 2011
Mrbig

Thanks saved me
September 30, 2011
Jeremias

Thanks man that help me alot
October 2, 2011
b.yasser

tank youuuuuuuuuuuuuu man !!!! that help me alooooooooooooot tannk uuuuuuuuuu
October 3, 2011
Vicken Avedian

Thank you you really saved me, I brought my work home when I finished and brought back to work I got this message I had no idea what it was. when I saw your site wow thank you I was really worried that I had to start my work again. Thank you again
October 4, 2011
Mike O

Thank you. I didn’t want to go back to a really old snapshot.
October 6, 2011
Dhananjaya

Thanks Man, it worked
October 9, 2011
MarcW

Thanks a lot! Many many thanks!
October 14, 2011
Enc

Yes, thanks a lot… Really bad when something like this happens when you´re in a hurry right before a presentation…
November 3, 2011
rinaldo

If you have a 2nd partition (HDD) on your VW you might also have a .lck file loccated there. In this instance you will need to delete the .lck file in both locations
November 7, 2011
JP

WHOOOWW… You just saved me 2 days of work for a demo due tomorrow!!!
November 7, 2011
Giselle

Thank you so so much. It fixed my problem
November 8, 2011
Laxman

Thanks ……………………………………………
November 10, 2011
Ram

Awesome JOB ! Saved me a lot of time.

How did you find this out ?
November 11, 2011
Arun

tooo good
November 13, 2011
Thomas

Great! Thanks a lot – your post saved me a lot of time!
November 14, 2011
sagiv norani

tnx a lot , Saved me a lot of time.
November 15, 2011
adenis

tanx a million!!!!!!
i was relieved when i saw my windows xp open again;)
November 16, 2011
Jim

you rock! thanks
November 24, 2011
Gladson

Thanks… 🙂
November 25, 2011
Ziggy

Thanks a Lot!!!!
November 25, 2011
James V

You Sir are awesome! Thank you so much!
December 1, 2011
RTFM

You´re the man!..Thanks a lot!!
December 10, 2011
Álvaro!

Thanks you! You saved me 😉
December 11, 2011
Vinayak

That worked! Thanks!!!!
December 12, 2011
Raj Kanodia

Thanks. this worked.
December 12, 2011
Abhi

Very very Thanks Master, Its work … !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 17, 2011
Omnia

Really Greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat thanks …… you Saved me
December 19, 2011
Pedro

Gracias me salvaste el puesto.
December 23, 2011
roshan

its really good…thanks a lot for help
December 24, 2011
srikanth

it,s works very well

Thank you very much
December 26, 2011
Chinna Reddy

ITS working fine thanq Very Much
January 4, 2012
umar

worked like a charm. amazing
January 5, 2012
akhil

really cool! thanks!
January 8, 2012
John

Thank you for the tip! It was extremely helpful!
January 13, 2012
Laura

=D gracias!!! funciona perfectamente
January 19, 2012
Mathieu

thx for the info!
January 26, 2012
Piyush

Thanks Man…….!!
February 4, 2012
Mahady Mukthar

Thanks …wow it saved ma whole lot of assignments….
February 6, 2012
JoSete4ever

Thanks u LOTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 7, 2012
shan

thanks it helpd me a lot
February 15, 2012
alistair

Thanks
February 15, 2012
Saad

Thanks
February 15, 2012
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February 18, 2012
Hari

txs a lot, now its working smooth.
February 20, 2012
Dorothy Odell

This saved me from having to redo alot of projects I had for my Server classes!! Thanks so much!!
February 21, 2012
Pengleng

Thanks you very much. It save me a lot of time 🙂
February 23, 2012
alfie

thank you soo much.. 🙂 such a relief