Restoring a failed VMware VM

[LittleB]

Thank you for the help and replies, everyone.

I used Paul's idea to copy over the older file backups from May. Then I opened the VM with the iso file I mentioned before, went into the VM's 'BIOS' and told it to boot to the CD first. Once I was in the restore program I selected a 'Normal' restore...(last time I used 'automatic') and selected several of the options...one was validate byte for byte...the program estimated it to take 6 hours (250 GB). I checked this morning and the restore went without a hitch. I didn't have time to see if Windows will need re-activation though.

Paul- Do you know which files are the 'base' of the VM?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

I call the initial files created when you create the VM the 'base' files. I usually just copy the folder contents (.vmdk, .vmsd, .vmx, .vmxf, etc.) to another location. If the virtual disk(s) will be large I may copy it/them out while still empty (not expanded) to save space. Otherwise, I'll make the backup after installing the OS while it's in its clean state. Makes a good return point if it gets corrupted or I want to start over. For normal backups I generally image the partition containing my VM files.

[LittleB]

Quick Update: The restore I outlined in my last post made it so I didn't have to re-activate Windows. Thanks for everyone's help!