Resolving the Fusion error: The file specified is not a virtual disk

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Starting a virtual machine fails
• You see the error:
  
  The file specified is not a virtual disk

Environment

VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x

Resolution

Note: This article applies to virtual machines. To resolve this issue with a Boot Camp partition, see A Boot Camp virtual machine fails to power on with a disk error (1003483)

 

To verify the virtual disk file that the virtual machine is trying to open:

1. Open your virtual machine's settings file (.vmx file) for editing. For more information, see Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine (1014782).
   
   Note: To make a backup of your .vmx file before editing it, hold the option key while dragging the .vmx file to another location (such as your desktop).
    
2. Look for the line that begins with:
   
   scsi0:0.fileName =
   
   Or possibly:
   
   ide0:0.fileName =
    
3. There is a file name, in quotes, after the equal sign. Ensure that the virtual disk file is a virtual disk or a snapshot disk, and not a slice. For more information on these file types, see Contents of the virtual machine bundle in Fusion (1021016)
   
   If it is pointing to a slice, truncate the file name by removing the reference to the slice so that the file name indicates only the parent virtual disk.
   
   For example:
   • Change "Windows XP Professional-000001-s007.vmdk" to "Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk"
   • Change "Windows Vista-s021.vmdk" to "Windows Vista.vmdk"
      
4. Save and close the settings file.
5. Quit Fusion, and reopen it. This reloads the settings file.
6. Start your virtual machine.

If the issue still persists, try to repair the virtual disk. For more information, see Repairing a sparse virtual disk in Fusion (1023888).

Additional Information

A Boot Camp virtual machine fails to power on with a disk error
Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine
Contents of the virtual machine bundle in Fusion
Repairing a sparse virtual disk in Fusion
解决 Fusion 错误：指定的文件不是虚拟磁盘
次の Fusion エラーの解決：指定されたファイルは仮想ディスクではありません