A virtual machine fails to power on with the error: The system cannot find the file specified

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Summary

A virtual machine fails to power on with the error:The system cannot find the file specified.

Example

Reason: The system cannot find the file specified.
Cannot open the disk 'abcdefgh.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
VMware ESX cannot find the virtual disk "abcdefgh.vmdk". Please verify the path is valid and try again.

Impact

The virtual machine cannot be powered on.

Resolution

This issue occurs if a virtual disk file is not present at the path specified in the virtual machine's configuration file.

To power on the virtual machine successfully, make sure that the missing virtual disk file is restored at the path specified.

Ensure that the virtual disk files configured for the virtual machine were not accidentally deleted or moved to a different location and that the datastores containing these virtual disks are accessible and mounted at the correct locations.

For additional information, see Verifying ESX/ESXi virtual machine file names (1003757).