Steps to add an existing hard disk to a virtual machine

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article details how to mount a vmdk from one VM to another to copy data between VMs. This can be useful when data from a disk of a malfunctioning or network isolated VM needs to be captured, but the VM disks cannot be accessed normally. 

Environment

• vCenter Server 7.x
• vCenter Server 8.x

Resolution

1. Right-click a virtual machine in the vCenter inventory and select the 'Edit Settings' option.
2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, click the 'Add New Device' button.
3. Select 'Existing Hard Disk' from the drop-down menu, and the 'Select File' dialog box opens.
4. In the Select File window, expand the Datastore where the vmdk that we are attaching is residing. Select the virtual machine folder and select the disk to add.
5. Then click OK.
6. The disk file appears in the Contents column. The File Type drop-down menu shows the compatibility file types for this disk.
7. Expand the 'New Hard disk' and make further customizations for the hard disk if needed.
8. Click OK.