Scary moment occurred last week when one of my virtual machines failed to start from VMWare Workstation. The reported error was "failed to lock the file". A bit of searching revealed that I needed to delete the .LCK file in the VM's folder.
The cause for this (I think) was that I had opened the virtual disk of this VM as a mapped drive on the host machine (TIP: very useful feature to get at files from the VM without powering it up - just right click on the .VMDK file in Windows Explorere, and you'll see a couple of options there to map the disk as a drive). That drive was still mapped when trying to start the VM, meaning that the host machine was accessing the VM's files.
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138 comments:
Great, Your suggestion worked for me in resolving my issue.
Thanks
I was on the verge of packing out. A google search quickly pointed me to your blog. And I here I found the answer.
Thanks!
Helped me too,
Thanks
Thanks :D
Thanks! Very helpful today as I got hit with a power outage.
However, I'm running VMWare server and the lock files end with ".WRITELOCK"
Thanks. Your suggestion worked very well. Not sure if this is relevant but I use Server 2003 / VMWare 2.0 and found that I had to delete all files and folders with .lck extensions in the copied back up VM to make it work.
Thanks!, it helps
Thanks!!! It worked for me...I was on panic...lol
Thanks!
Awesome!! Thank you for the post! This fixed my issue. I sweating for a minute. Thanks again!
I was stressing a little - I thought i corrupted my VM files... useful feature, i must say.
Thanks
Thanks a million for such a useful piece of advice. I have thrown nearly 5 virtual machines due to this problem thinking that they have got corrupted. Thanks again.
Your suggestion was Number 1 on Google. Thank you very very much.
YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!JESUS YOU SAVE MY DAY!!
Many Thanks,
SP from the country of sun,PORTUGAL
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, YOU SAVE MY DAY !!!!!
PERFECT! Thank you!!!
Very Very helpful. Thxs a million.
A very helpfull post, many thanks
GREAT!
Great, on VMware's site It was so problematic to find a solution. Thanks for posting this, worked like a charm
Thanks very much, another persons problem solved :)
Thank you so much!
Good tip, a failed to lock the file google search brought be straight to your blog and indeed solved the problem in seconds, for people having problems loading the vmware-server ui you should point to localhost as: https://127.0.0.1:8333/ui/ and this should solve the problem.
Thank you very much for posting this.
Thank you, it worked for me too...
Thanks Dude. Very Helpful!
Thanks Dude. It helps a lot
Thanks Dude. It helps a lot
I did not have any *.lck files in the VM's disk folder but I managed to get it working by removing the Hard Disk from its settings and adding it back in again (VMWare Server).
This solution really saved my bacon this morning. I left VM running over night and my automatic back up had to shut down the VM. I think this was the reason it locked. Thanks for posting the resolution!
Ditto
Gee a year later and it still is helping out.
You'd think it would be documented by now.
Ralph
A simple tip solved a huge issue! Thanks a lot!!
Reinaldo
Thanks a lot, this helped me on vmware server.
Thank you!
This helped me solve my problem!
Thank you!
This helped me solve my problem too!
thanks it works in my laptop , i'm runnin' ubuntu
Thank you. Great help!
Thought I just lost the shell program that I moved from my flash drive to VM (and deleted from the flash drive afterwards). Google pointed me here. Nice tip, thanks!
Thanks!
I had 80 directories with the LCK extension...moved them to a temp directory and everything booted up.
Saved my life, great job researching it!!!
THANKS!
This post was the first hit on Google, and saved my bacon. A power outage was followed by the fact that VMWare Fusion would no longer load my Windows XP virtual machine.
I searched my host computer, a Mac, for .lck files and moved them all into a temp folder. VMWare loaded Windows XP no problem after that was done.
Thanks a lot , it was so helpful
One change of underwear later - worked like a charm. Thanks!
Works Amazingly, thanks.
Thanks for the comments as well. As someone pointed out there can be multiple lock directories which happend to me.
(I tested the UPS shutdown functionality on my server, which did not work so the machine was turned off while running full load. Left some lockfiles ;)
Thanks for this SO USEFUL tips!
I was really in the "scary moment" part before I apply your solution and that's when I started to cool down!
THANK YOU SO MUCH
I have my VM running off of a Truecrypt file and Radiocom1's suggestion worked for me. "had to delete all files and folders with .lck extensions".
Thanks!
thanks a lot .. i was really panicked..
Thanks!!!
Your suggestion
really helped me a lot~
Worked for me, too! Thanks for the post!!! (Saved my day.)
you save me a lot of hours of digging the web!
Thanks!
Thanks..iii
its really work for me
My VM had two .lck files: One named after the machine and one named a string of hex characters and dashes. I left the hex one alone and deleted the other and it worked. Thanks!
Thanks :)
This was a life saver, thanks so much. I upgraded VM Server Ver 1 to Ver 2 and the VM's wouldn't mount once updated until I deleted the locked files.
Thanks again,
J.
Top man worked for me also
Thanks
Martin
Top man worked for me also
Thanks
Martin
cool..thats worked for me too....Thanks man...
Thanks soooooo much for this!
Thanks a heaps.
What a good finding. It did work. Thanks Mate
worked like a charm. Thanks!
It helped me too... thank you
Thank you so much, I was so close to throw the notebook against the wall :)
This helped me a lot! thanks!
This helped me a lot! thanks
My machine says "Failed to Lock the File" but it says there's an issue with the .nvram. I see no .lck files. Anyone ever run into this problem?
My recent post, I figured it out. I have 4 hosts on a cluster so I had to power it off and migrate it to another host. I think the host I moved it to was the actual original host. It was moved because I had to re-register the VM and it was wrongfully placed on the wrong host. :)
thanks for this!
i thought my vm was corrupted!
Thanks this worked great. I just deleted the LCK folder of the one it couldnt lock onto. This is after VMware crashed my system
thanks a lot!
Thanks a bunch, worked like a charm :)
Thanks Much... It worked for me..
Thanks ..worked!
thank you thank you thank you!
Big thx, I spended three hours configuring my VM for my study project, and after power lost I got this message, and you sollution works prefectly :)
Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!!! I can't believe it was that easy! I was freaking out! I had just done a bunch of work, thought to myself, "Should I back up to my external drive?", said, "Nah", then I started getting that error, and was like, "Holy...!"
You're a lifesaver. I'm so glad you took the time to post this tip. I would never have figured this out!
Thanks - This was very useful. Time to do a backup I think!
www.sysfix.co.uk
thanks for help. need for study use =]
Great Post in your Blog!! Solve my problem instantly. Thanks for Share Knowledge!
thx a lot!!! xD
March 2011 and i helped me as well.
Thanks
Canmore
Good job mate..
Great!!It works!!!Thanks!!
just worked very nicely, thanks
Thank u so much.It worked for me
Awesome man, worked for me tooo
Awesome, worked for me too
thank dude ,,,,,,,
Thanks it worked,my error was due to a power failure
Worked awesome. I had copied my VM from one machine to another and was getting the error.
Thanks a zillion for your tip!
There were .lck files within .lck folders, I deleted them and it worked like a charm!
Solved it for me! Thanks!
Its good suggestion and fixed issue. :)
Dude, you just saved me from disaster. Thank you for posting the tip.
Sean - "WLANFAN"
Like Lucas, I too did not have any .lck files in the VM folder. Removing the Hard Disk and adding it back fixed the issue. (vSphere - ESXi 5.0)
Like Lucas, I too did not have any .lck files in my VM folder. Removing the hard drive and adding back in fixed the issue. (vSphere - ESXi 5.0)
Thanks Man Irs works
Great post - simple and clear. Seems to have helped almost 100 people to date.
Thanks a lot, it helped me !!
Delete all folders with lock extension and the machine will start again with no problems.
Thank you!
Thanks.. :)
Thank you :)
thkx !!
solved my issue too !!
Thanks for posting. This fixed my issue.
Thanks a lot
Cheers
Anurag Sachan
Thanks a lot dear..Bach D
Well Thanks alot for your support, actually one should delete all the folders having .lck extension to start the machine :) It works for me
Thank you. Excellent on my way now. Vmware is solid.
Thanks...my lights went out while i was running linux on vmware. Deleting the files solved the problem.
I just wanted to let everyone know I had the problem and it resolved it, however I have a standard windows 7 VM I copy normally, to save time. I did this and tried setting up a new VM, told it I copied it. It gave me the lock error even after I deleted all the lock files. I had to delete the lock files in all folders, which is pretty sketchy imo. Either way, if somebody still is scratching their head, try that.
If it still doesn't work for a specific VM try deleting the LCK files from others, that ended up fixing it for a VM that had no LCK files LOL
A lot of thanks!!! It worked for me!
Thanks man!!!
The solution was on point. Thanks.
Same as everyone else, power outage on ESX server. No .LCK or .WRITELOCK on the datastore, but as another poster mentioned I was able to remove the hard disk (don't delete!) and add it back and the VM came right up!
Thanks for the blog and comments!
Same as everyone else, power outage on ESX server. No .LCK or .WRITELOCK on the datastore, but as another poster mentioned I was able to remove the hard disk (don't delete!) and add it back and the VM came right up!
Thanks for the blog and comments!
Same as everyone else, power outage on ESX server. No .LCK or .WRITELOCK on the datastore, but as another poster mentioned I was able to remove the hard disk (don't delete!) and add it back and the VM came right up!
Thanks for the blog and comments!
Worked like a charm, thanks!
Worked like a charm, thanks!
helpful information.....thank you
Worked for me too!!!!
Thanks for this.
thanks it works for me
Great Worked for me
Man i almost had an heartattack, you saved my day.
Man a almost had an heartattack, you saved my day
DUDE!!!! AWESOME...I was scared to death because my machine and the backup both were not working...just deleting the files and bam they worked again...thank you.
worked great
Worked Great
Worked great for me.
Thanks
Worked for me.
Thanks you saved me from a reinstall.
Thanks man.. it worked :)
Thanks a lot!!! it worked for me as well!!
Thanks a lot. Helpful
almost 6 years later it helps another It guy. Thanx alot.
thx ! this is very usefull! this has happened to me a couple of times now and this worked right away. the error started on one of my vm after the power turned off in my home.
you are my super hero !
Tkx, worked for me. Excellent
thaks worked just fine ;)
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