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

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

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.

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

Start the virtual machine. If this fails try to Map the virtual hard disk to Z:\

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I than disconnect the virtual hard disk and retried. The virtual machine boot without any problem; my snapshot was valid.

failed, file, lock, vmdk, VMWare, workstation

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This entry was posted by Ivan Versluis on March 12, 2008 at 5:20 pm, and is filed under VMWare. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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Comments (75)

#1 written by futureOpen
about 7 months ago

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thanks….it worked
#2 written by Aswin
about 6 months ago

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Thank u so much it worked !!!!
#3 written by dani
about 6 months ago

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thanks
#4 written by Rob
about 6 months ago

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I am not a vmware techie and know enough to be dangerous…have the lock file situation and understand the fix but do no know how to get to the folders\files on the vm to delete them. Any help greatly appreciated.
#5 written by Ismael
about 5 months ago

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Thanks, saved my bacon. Otherwise I would have to rebuild the vm’s.
#6 written by Sangy
about 5 months ago

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Thanks…!! it works..but I could not understand why it was happened ?
#7 written by leo
about 5 months ago

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thanks a lot you saved my filelife
#8 written by Sumanth
about 5 months ago

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Thanks a lot pal! That worked brilliant
#9 written by Oscar GF
about 4 months ago

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Funcionó! Gracias!
It worked! Thanks!
#10 written by Ali Abooali
about 4 months ago

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Excellent!!!! …. Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
#11 written by Sam
about 3 months ago

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Thanks I thought I lost all of my TV shows. You’re a life saver.
#12 written by alban YANDZI
about 3 months ago

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thanks for your help my server is working now.
#13 written by Maher
about 3 months ago

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if it doesn’t work rename the disk
#14 written by bangjon
about 3 months ago

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okay it’s work. with only remove .lck folder. thanks brother
#15 written by rama\
about 3 months ago

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Thank u so much it worked !!!!
#16 written by Pagesofjoy
about 2 months ago

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Thank a ton It worked.
#17 written by NiceGuy
about 2 months ago

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Thanks, that saved my ass thank you very much! Brilliant!
#18 written by Sandro
about 2 months ago

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Thanks from Russia
#19 written by Sean Taylor
about 2 months ago

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Thank you very much. I have just deleted the .lck folders and I could power on my Virtual Machine. Do you know why this situation could happened?
#20 written by Duncan
about 2 months ago

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Thank you very well written guide solved the problem in seconds (my computer had crashed whilst the VM was running).
#21 written by Gerhard
about 1 month ago

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Saved my day! Thanks
#22 written by darkskull
about 1 month ago

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YEAH!!! Work fine!!! Thanks
#23 written by alex
about 1 month ago

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I have deleted the .lck folder and now it still would not work it shows another error (Cannot open the disk ‘..-..’) Reason: The specified virtual disk needs repair. and when i restore those folders back it shows me the first error message ( Failed to lock the file.)

and it doesn’t let me to change the drive Letter i believe due to the error
#24 written by haris
about 1 month ago

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thanks
#25 written by Sandeep
about 1 week ago

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it worked. thanks.

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