vmware-mount.exe is not working in Windows 7 64bit

[thara01]

Hi,

I am trying to mount an vmdk files under Windows 7 64bit. I am following a blog http://4sysops.com/archives/free-vmware-diskmount-gui-mount-vmdk-files/

I downloaded and installed the virtual disk development kit. I am able to mount my vmdk file successfully in command line and able to view files. But when it is not showing up in windows explorer. Can anybody help me with this?

I wanted to transfer some files from a vmdk. I have VMWARE workstation installed.

Thanks,

RT

[admin]

Can you try

explorer <dirve letter:> at the command prompt?

-Sudarsan

[N5BZ]

I have a similar problem on win7 32 bit..

When I run vmware-mounter or vdk.exe from a cmd window (admin). I can see the mounted volume via dir from the cmd window and cd to it and operate on it.

If I try to invoke explorer drive: from the cmd window, it complains that the drive isn't available.

If I try mounting from a .bat file running it as admin, the mount fails.

In no case can I access the files on the 'mounted drive' from win7.

I CAN access the drive if I mount it as a drive on a virtual machine using workstation 5.

Microsoft seems to have royally messed up the interface to 'mounted' hard drives and ended up with two different, independed, file systems.

How can we straighten this out? The author of VDK doesn't seem to have released any recent updates but the source code is published. Someone might be able to 'fix' it so it works with win7.

Perhaps someone can get vmware and microsoft to cooperate on fixing this problem. I hope so. Win7 has some nice features, but it also has some major frustration points.

HELP!

[N5BZ]

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

This problem occurs when the vmware volume is on a drive mounted via a USB interface but the probem does NOT occur when the virtual disk is on my win7 local hard drive.

[sambul12]

I also tried running vmware-mount.exe utility (with all required parameters) that is installed with latest available VMWare DDK, and it does nothing to mount a vmdk file as virtual disk in Win-7 64-bit, just prints content of Help instead in Command Promt window - if I type pass to vmdk file without "". When using "", the utility crashes with popup Error Window "Program unexpectedly closed". It looks like it uses an updated to 64-bit old VDK driver of Ken Kato (its actually placed by DDK installer in the same folder), but the driver is unsigned, and doesn't work in regular Win7 64-bit mode. VMWare DiskMount GIU from Devfarm Software also crashes the same way. Intersting that vddk64.zip file is also placed in the same folder, but it doesn't have vmware-mount.exe file in its bin folder, only vmware-vdiskmanager.exe.

Anyone can suggest, how to mount  vmdk files in Win7 64-bit to make them accessible in Win Explorer 64-bit, instead of only in VMWare workstation or player? Any other utility can do that? What seems to be a problem, assuming vmware-mount.exe uses its own signed 64-bit driver instead of VDK? Anyone was lucky to mount vmdk files in Win7 64-bit at all - how exactly?

[LouKurrelmeyer]

I am not able to mount even on a local hard drive. After mounting as "M:", when I try to view drive with Windows 7 Explorer [64bit] I get:

Location is not available
M:\ is not accessible
Incorrect function

If I try to run:

vmware-vdiskmanager -p M:

I get:

Failed to prepare the disk mounted at 'M:' for shrinking.

I have tried both the 32bit and 64 bit command shells in Widows 7.

I am running the latest [1.2.1] virtual disk tools and the latest Windows 7 Professional and the latest VMWare [7.1.3 build-324285].

[ccaporale]

I got it.... and I know this is a *bad* answer, but disable UAC.

The basic idea is the same as this note from Microsoft, whaich basically states that drives mounted with an administrator token aren't accessible by a standard user token and vice versa.

After you turn on User Account Control in Windows Vista or in Windows 7, programs may be unable to access some network locations

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;937624

The only problem with MS' solution is that it only works for mapped or network drives, not local ones.  And I did try to "loopback" mount my vmdk as a shared drive.... it doesn't work.  I also played with the VDDK's vmware-mount command line, and as long as you're staying in the same token context

(CMD as Admin -> vmware-mount -> mounted vmdk is accessible in CMD shell as admin, or CMD -> vmware-mount -> mounted vmdk is accessible via gui but not to tools running in admin context).

I'd say this is a feature improvement request to VMWare... either allow a selectable token context when mounting a vmdk, or potentially mount into a folder on the local HD as a junction point.

[lwall]

This has got nothing to do with UAC, USB or Microsoft...

VMware's mount driver should support IOCTL_STORAGE_GET_HOTPLUG_INFO IOCTL

QCOW and VMDK VM snapshot mounts - YouTube

Also, if possible please advise where can I find the new 62 TB VMDK spec ? Thanks !