Unable to take ownership of VM

[ayy_moose]

I was using VMware® Workstation 12 Pro running a Linux Ubuntu 16.04 virtual machine on a host machine Windows 10 when all of a sudden my host machine blue screened with a CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT (whilst I was away from the computer). I didn't see what happened but during that time, VMWare was running and I've managed to restore my computer. I'm not saying that the bluescreen was a result of VMWare but when I opened VMWare Workstation, all the VM's that were listed have disappeared. I tried to open the the VM I was last using (that was in use during the bluescreen) but it says

This virtual machine appears to be in use.

If this virtual machine is not in use, press the "Take Ownership" button to obtain ownership of it. Otherwise, press the "Cancel" button to avoid damaging it.

Configuration file: C:\Users\Documents\Virtual Machines\work\work.vmx.

I try to take ownership but that fails too:

Could not open virtual machine "work" (C:\Users\Documents\Virtual Machines\work\work.vmx):

Taking ownership of this virtual machine failed.

The virtual machine is in use by an application on your host computer.

Configuration file: C:\Users\Documents\Virtual Machines\work\work.vmx.

Remove "work" from the library?

Is there any way for me to regain control of this VM by killing some VMWare processes that are open or something?

Thanks

[continuum]

Open C:\Users\Documents\Virtual Machines\work with explorer and delete/rename lck-files and lck-directories.

[ascreek]

This solution worked for me with Windows VMs: I found one .lck directory and renamed it. Thank you so much!

[micfiz]

Thank you very much, your comment helped me to solve the same issue!

Cheers,

Michael

[dricci]

 Many thanks, even the post is older, it worked for me to help me out of the same problem in VM Workstation 17.

[captainhowdy]

this worked years later, so appreciated! But....if youd be so kind; why did it work? Thanks again!

[VMware Community Member]

Thanks for the answer. i changed both the lck file names. my machine got started.

[Khumbo Kaunda]

🙌 8 years later and this solution still works. Thank you!

[Khumbo Kaunda]

8 years later and this solution still works. Thank you

[Oswald Aleman]

It's great that still working in 2025