How can I recover a file from a corrupt VHD?

[Pete222]

I have a VHD that cannot be read by MS VirtualPC (Source of VHD), MS Virtual Server VHD mount, WinImage or VirtualBox. All of these said that it was an invalid VHD file.

I believe that this may have been caused by being 'active' when I backed it up. (Now I only have that backup)

Is there any way to repair or recover files from it?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Pete.

 

[Nelviticus]

According to the Virtual PC Guy, a Microsoft employee who works on their virtualisation apps, the way to do it is to run data recovery tools inside the virtual machine. I guess that means that if you have a bootable CD for a data recovery app you boot the VM from it.

He's recently written a whole article about it:
How do I Fix a Corrupted Virtual Hard Disk?

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Lemon13]

when u cant start the vhd file ur lost, its a metafile, no chance

 

[Pete222]

Thanks for the replies, looks like I will have to start again from scratch then.

It's a shame there isn't a way to search the raw data of the vhd file to look for files inside it - like data recovery software does on real hdds.

Pete.

 

[RichLee]

You might be able to recover something by opening it with a hex editor. I've just had a look at a .VHD and can see the contents - just like using a disk editor.