Virtual machine disks showing "0MB" size in vCenter and incorrect disks size in ESXi Host Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When viewing "Edit Settings" on a virtual machine from the vSphere Client, one or more hard disks may display "0MB" in size.
  
  

• Host Client UI shows incorrect disks size. 
  
  

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 
• VMware vCenter 

Cause

• A VM disk showing 0 MB is typically caused by a corrupted or missing descriptor file (vmdk).
• An inaccessible datastore, or an inconsistent snapshot chain. The underlying issue is often that the host cannot find or read the necessary files to determine the disk's actual size, resulting in it displaying 0 MB.

Resolution

Before performing the steps below, make sure there is a backup of the affected Virtual Machine.

1. Make sure the Virtual Machine is in a Powered Off State.
2. Right click on affected Virtual Machine and Click on Edit Settings.
3. Select the Hard Drive that is displaying a size of 0MB, Click on three dots to the right of the drive and select "Remove Device". (Do not select "Remove device and data")
4. Click OK.
5. Right click on affected Virtual Machine and Click on Edit Settings again.
6. Click on "Add New Device" and select "Existing Hard Disk".
7. Navigate to the VM folder, and attach the correct vmdk file.
8. Click OK, then Power on the Virtual Machine.
9. Check and verify the vmdk size on both vCenter and ESXi host client. The correct size should be displayed.

If the vmdk file is missing or corrupted, it may need to be replaced by following Recreating a missing VMware virtual machine disk descriptor file (.vmdk)

In the case that there is an inconsistent snapshot chain, please follow Locate and remediate CID/parentCID mismatches in snapshot descriptor files using a scripted method.