Delta Vmdk Recovery May 2026

with open("delta.vmdk", "rb") as f: # Read grain directory at offset 0x20000 (typical) f.seek(GRAIN_DIR_OFFSET) for gt_entry in grain_directory: gt_offset = gt_entry & 0xFFFFFFFF f.seek(gt_offset) grain_table = read_grain_table(f) for grain in grain_table: if grain != 0: # present in delta f.seek(grain) data = f.read(65536) # grain size write_to_output(data) | Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | vmfs-tools (vmfs-fuse) | Mount VMFS datastore, access raw delta | | vmdktool | Convert delta to raw without parent | | testdisk / photorec | Carve orphaned files from delta raw image | | sleuthkit (mmls, fls) | Analyze recovered raw image for partition table | 6. Case Study: Recovering 40 GB Database from Orphaned Delta Scenario: ESXi host failed during snapshot consolidation. Parent VMDK was zeroed by storage error. Only db-snapshot-delta.vmdk (55 GB) remained.