But here is the good news: In most cases, the partition table is just hiding, or the VMFS header is slightly corrupted. You can get your VMs back.
Instead, take a deep breath and follow the steps below. SSH into your ESXi host and run: data recovery vmfs partition
This guide walks you through the actual process of recovering a lost VMFS partition—no magic wands required. When ESXi cannot detect a VMFS datastore, it will often offer to "Create a new datastore" on the LUN or disk. But here is the good news: In most
vmfs6-recover /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000c29... This scans for stale VMFS signatures and can reattach the partition without data loss. If auto-recovery fails, you need to manually recreate the partition table exactly as it was. SSH into your ESXi host and run: This
And if all else fails? Professional recovery tools exist for a reason. But start with the CLI. You might surprise yourself.
Clicking "New Datastore" writes a new VMFS header and partition table, which will overwrite the old one. Once that happens, recovery goes from "moderate" to "forensic excavation."