# Cannot determine VMDK file system type
**URL:** https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/cannot-determine-vmdk-file-system-type/2495
**Category:** Autopsy Help
**Created:** [March 6, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/cannot-determine-vmdk-file-system-type/2495 "2021-03-06T01:56:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@KhurumA](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/u/KhurumA)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/cannot-determine-vmdk-file-system-type/2495/1 "2021-03-06T01:56:22Z")
Troubleshooting a Data Source problem when importing a VMDK file into Autopsy.
Steps to failure:
1. I’ve pulled this image from an ESXI host which took the snapshot.
2. I’ve imported this to “Disk Image or VM file”
3. Default selected all ingest modules
I think it could be a potentially bad VMDK (though I think this isn’t the case as the SHA265 hash came back the same as the original snapshot file) but I want someone to provide some guidance as to what’s causing this error…
---
### Author:  [@atdt0](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/u/atdt0)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2021, 6:49pm UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/cannot-determine-vmdk-file-system-type/2495/2 "2021-03-07T18:49:54Z")
Have you tried to mount the .vmdk to inspect it? What does the .vmdk look like in a hex viewer? ie. Below is sample output via ‘hexdump -C \’:
```bash
00000000 4b 44 4d 56 01 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 |KDMV............|
00000010 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 |................|
00000030 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1f 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 80 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0a 20 0d 0a 00 00 00 |.(........ .....|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
00000200 23 20 44 69 73 6b 20 44 65 73 63 72 69 70 74 6f |# Disk Descripto|
00000210 72 46 69 6c 65 0a 76 65 72 73 69 6f 6e 3d 31 0a |rFile.version=1.|
00000220 65 6e 63 6f 64 69 6e 67 3d 22 55 54 46 2d 38 22 |encoding="UTF-8"|
00000230 0a 43 49 44 3d 39 32 63 39 34 32 65 34 0a 70 61 |.CID=92c942e4.pa|
00000240 72 65 6e 74 43 49 44 3d 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 |rentCID=ffffffff|
00000250 0a 63 72 65 61 74 65 54 79 70 65 3d 22 6d 6f 6e |.createType="mon|
00000260 6f 6c 69 74 68 69 63 53 70 61 72 73 65 22 0a 0a |olithicSparse"..|
00000270 23 20 45 78 74 65 6e 74 20 64 65 73 63 72 69 70 |# Extent descrip|
00000280 74 69 6f 6e 0a 52 57 20 38 33 38 38 36 30 38 30 |tion.RW 83886080|
00000290 20 53 50 41 52 53 45 20 22 57 69 6e 64 6f 77 73 | SPARSE "Windows|
000002a0 20 31 30 20 78 36 34 2e 76 6d 64 6b 22 0a 0a 23 | 10 x64.vmdk"..#|
```
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Browne](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/u/Alan_Browne)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2021, 11:35am UTC](https://sleuthkit.discourse.group/t/cannot-determine-vmdk-file-system-type/2495/3 "2021-03-08T11:35:44Z")
Looking at the error log, it would appear that you have created a logical image of the ESXI host. From my understanding, but I am subject to be corrected, when you add an image to autopsy, it tries to run mmls and get a list of the partitions. If mmls cannot identify a partition scheme, the error as you have got will occur.
In order to overcome this, you can convert the vmdk to a dd using the libvmdk library and mount the resulting folder and subsequently add the mounted folder into autopsy as a logical folder.