Now go verify your backups.
For virtualization administrators, accidentally deleting a virtual machine disk file (VMDK) is a career-defining mistake—but not necessarily a fatal one. The path to restoration depends entirely on the seconds, minutes, and hours that follow the deletion. The moment you delete a VMDK from a VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) datastore, the file’s space is marked as “free.” The data isn't erased; the pointers are just removed. However, the moment the hypervisor writes any new data to that datastore—a new snapshot, a log file, or a VM swap file—it can overwrite the sectors containing your missing virtual disk. vmware restore deleted vmdk
It starts with a cold knot in your stomach. You’re cleaning up a datastore, deleting a stray ISO or an old log folder, when your fingers move on autopilot. Delete. Confirm. Then you see it: the .vmdk file is gone. Now go verify your backups