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.

February 28, 2012
Nazrul Islam

Thanks a lot. It worked for me very well 🙂
March 4, 2012
Fazio Mangione

Thanks, That was awesome!!!
March 10, 2012
Elvie

Thanks a lot! indeed, a great help….:)
March 14, 2012
thankuuu

Thank you man
March 17, 2012
Get Backer

thanks a lot man, you’re god awesome advice
March 19, 2012
frank

thankxxxx this really helped me out xxx
ly
March 21, 2012
bob

thankxxxx a lot you save a life
March 22, 2012
Anders

Thanks a bunch! Was afraid I had to rewrite a whole lot of code
March 29, 2012
mau

you save my life. thank you
April 5, 2012
Georgi

Thanks for your guide. It helps me a lot.
April 9, 2012
Philip

I worked.. Thanks a lot…
April 12, 2012
Ben

Awesome!
April 17, 2012
Dean

thanx saved my life.
April 20, 2012
Jean

Directly to the point!!
May 16, 2012
Jerome

Saved me a lot of time !
May 24, 2012
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May 29, 2012
vmuser

Thanks so much! It work like a charm!!!
May 29, 2012
Rica

Worked very fine thanks.
May 30, 2012
Denver Swartz

Thanks alot man you save my school. My students also thank you for the advice.
June 7, 2012
avengers

fantastic article, save my day
June 9, 2012
VijayKandimalla

Great.. It works fine. Thank you
June 28, 2012
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July 2, 2012
Elad

Thanks, saved me a lot of time trying to figure it out
July 4, 2012
Chev

Thank you!
July 4, 2012
Alpana

Thanks it worked for me too
July 8, 2012
salem

great !! Thanks 🙂
July 9, 2012
Guypacome Gbelai

Thanks man. It’s worked for me.
July 17, 2012
Miriam

Very Cool ! Thanks a thousand time !
July 18, 2012
Miguel

Thanks a lot .. This happened to one of my very important VMs .. I really appreciate it !!
July 30, 2012
Aghasy

Thank you!
August 6, 2012
Hans Wurst

Thanks a lot. Worked fine for me!
August 24, 2012
Rodrigo

Thanks man, u save my work…
Brasil.
August 25, 2012
alucardhxh

thank you
August 29, 2012
anoymous

Thank you, it helped me!!
September 3, 2012
MAN

Thank you !!!
September 5, 2012
Olivier

Thank you !
September 20, 2012
Éderson

Thank you, it helped me!!
Brasil
September 26, 2012
vikram vaje

thanks, it’s work for me
October 6, 2012
Rick Swanson

Thanks A Lot!!!

Occam’s Razor stikes again. Good catch!
October 20, 2012
Jean Marc

Merci beaucoup !!!
October 30, 2012
olya

Thank you so much! It saved me
November 13, 2012
Bojan

Tnx man ! U help me a lot !
November 16, 2012
Panda

You, sir are a life saver!!!!

Thanks a lot man.
December 9, 2012
wenny

It works like magic! Thanks Sir!
January 1, 2013
Reol

Thanks dude, it worked on debian 6 just by deleting the .lck folders. Oh yeah!
January 12, 2013
Morteza saedpanah

Thanx a lot !
January 19, 2013
Atif

Thanks Brother
January 24, 2013
Maryam

Thanks a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot 😀
January 26, 2013
pedram

thanks a lot man, you’re god awesome advice
February 11, 2013
Manaji

Thanks a lot, This helped me..