lcoughey wrote:
I've actually had quite a bit of good luck when it comes to deleted VMDK flat files, as they tend to created at a point when there is enough contiguous space to avoid fragmentation and the full amount of the file is allocated at the time of creation. That said, don't take it for granted that just because you can bring up a file structure that everything opens. Take the time to test and verify all the critical files wanted by your client.
Unless they did thin provisioning when they set up the VM. If they did that, it'll be a fragmented nightmare.
@OP, what's the host file system where the VMDK is stored? Perhaps your best bet will be trying to find a reference to the file location(s).