Virtual Machine Data Recovery
Our engineers work on the most complex virtualised environments. Drawing on more than 20 years of data recovery expertise, we handle VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox and VirtualBox virtual machines that have become inaccessible, deleted or corrupted.
Proven expertise
We have solid experience and ongoing R&D
No hidden costs
You only pay for the data we recover, with no additional parts fees or the like
Free
Free assessment of recoverable data, free collection of your media
Fast and affordable
We offer effective, affordable recovery solutions
We handle every type of virtual machine recovery
We work with the leading hypervisors and virtualised infrastructures used by businesses. Our teams handle critical virtual machines, whether deleted, encrypted, corrupted or otherwise unusable.
List:
- VMware ESXi
- VMware vSphere
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Proxmox VE
- Oracle VirtualBox
- Citrix Hypervisor
- Nutanix AHV
- KVM / QEMU
Our pricing
Virtual machine data loss situations we’ve already handled:
- Accidental deletion of a virtual machine.
- Corrupted VMFS datastore.
- Deleted or damaged VMware snapshot.
- Inaccessible VMDK file.
- Corrupted VHD or VHDX volume.
- RAID failure on the array hosting the VMs.
- Interrupted virtual machine migration.
- Ransomware attack that encrypted the virtual files.
- Sudden hypervisor shutdown.
- Corrupted guest operating system.
Our pricing depends on several factors
- Size of the virtual machines.
- Number of VMs affected.
- Complexity of the infrastructure.
- Presence of snapshots or damaged datastores.
- Urgency of the intervention.
Why choose Chronodisk for virtual machine recovery?
Our engineers have recognised expertise in recovering complex virtualised environments. We work with the market’s leading hypervisors to quickly restore your critical data and limit business disruption.
Free
A no-cost assessment
Call us on
*See our Terms and Conditions of Sale
The recovery process
01
You give us the details of your virtualised environment (VMware, Hyper-V, Proxmox, etc.).
02
Our engineers analyse the virtual files, datastores and snapshots involved.
03
You approve the list of recoverable data and the start of the recovery.
04
We return your virtual machines or your data once final approval is given.
2500
Recoveries a year
15
Years in business
30 000
Parts in stock
18
Drop-off centres
What our clients say
Tout d’abord, je tiens à vous remercier d’avoir récupéré mes données. Malgré l’état critique du disque dur, vous avez réussi à récupérer 400 Go de fichiers en temps plus que convenable. Mention particulière aux personnes de l’accueil qui ont toujours été très aimables et m’ont extrêmement bien conseillé. Je vous recommanderai autour de moi, encore merci.
Pierre-André Laville
Vraiment super entreprise ! Beaucoup de disponibilités pour répondre aux différentes questions et en plus, j’ai pu récupérerer toutes les photos de naissance de mon petit effacées par erreur… Je recommande !
Stéphanie Desmares
“A million thanks to the @chronodisk_fr crew for saving more than 60 000 tracks for me. This is 6 years of music!!! I would have been gutted to lose all that- You guys are wizards, and deserve a super huge MERCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII #chronodisk #thankyou #savingData #bestintheworld
Laurent Garnier
Rien à redire, très professionnels sur toute la durée de la récupération de mes données et les prix correspondent à ceux du marché si je devais donner un point négatif ce serait les délais qui parfois peuvent être mal compris. Dans mon cas je n’ai pas eu de soucis à ce point Chronodisk récupération de données sur disque dur.
Julien Damcourt
Our advice to avoid making
data loss worse
Stay calm, and above all don’t take any risks!
Hardware faults
Switch off the device immediately, especially if you hear unusual noises.
Don’t force the drive with tools that don’t handle bad sectors — this could scratch the platters.
Never open the drive outside a cleanroom. This will leave traces, and labs charge extra for the time needed to clean the platters.
Pack your hard drive carefully for shipping
Non-hardware faults
You can no longer access your data.
Above all, stop writing anything to the drive: don’t install software or, worse, copy data onto the drive that suffered the loss.
If you need to keep working on the computer, clone the drive onto an identical one and work from an external enclosure instead.
Water and fire damage
Cleaning is delicate! Do not dry the drives.
For submerged hard drives, it’s best to leave them in water to prevent corrosion — ideally in a sealed plastic container filled with distilled water.
Stay calm — we’ve already received dozens of these 🙂
Frequently asked questions
Used daily by businesses, virtual machines host business applications, databases, file servers and critical infrastructure within VMware, Hyper-V or Proxmox environments. Flexible, high-performing and easy to administer, they are now at the heart of modern information systems. However, a handling error, a corrupted datastore, a faulty snapshot or a hardware fault can quickly make a virtual machine inaccessible. Because we know that a production outage can have serious consequences for your business, Chronodisk puts its virtual machine data recovery expertise to work to restore your virtualised environments as quickly as possible.
The causes of data loss on a virtual machine
Virtual machines are now used to host essential services: ERP systems, databases, file servers, business applications or critical infrastructure. When a virtual machine becomes inaccessible, it can sometimes affect a company’s entire operations, leading to service interruptions, business interruption losses and significant financial consequences.
Several causes can trigger a failure and lead to data loss or the unavailability of a virtualised environment. While hypervisors offer a high level of flexibility and resilience, they remain exposed to technical and human incidents, including:
- Accidental deletion of a virtual machine.
- Corruption of a VMFS datastore or storage volume.
- Deletion or alteration of a VMware snapshot.
- An error during a virtual machine migration or conversion.
- Corrupted VMDK, VHD or VHDX files.
- A RAID or SAN failure hosting the virtualised environments.
- A ransomware attack that encrypted the virtual machine files.
- A power failure or sudden hypervisor shutdown.
- VMware, Hyper-V or Proxmox configuration errors.
- Disasters (fire, water damage, power surge, lightning strike).
- Human error during a maintenance operation.
- Hardware failure on the physical servers.
In short, virtual machine data recovery covers several categories of incidents that can affect both the physical infrastructure and the virtualisation layer:
- Logical faults (file corruption, deletion, configuration errors).
- Hardware faults (servers, storage arrays, RAID, SAN).
- Virtualisation-related faults (snapshots, datastores, hypervisors).
- Cybersecurity incidents (ransomware, encryption, compromise).
- Physical disasters (fire, flooding, power surges).
VMware, Hyper-V and Proxmox virtual machine data recovery
Virtualised infrastructures are now at the heart of modern information systems. An unavailable virtual machine can bring an ERP system, a database, a mail server or a critical business application to an immediate halt.
Chronodisk has been supporting businesses facing incidents affecting their virtualised environments for more than 20 years.
Most common causes
- Accidental deletion.
- Corrupted datastore.
- Faulty snapshot.
- RAID failure.
- Ransomware attack.
- Interrupted migration.
- Hardware failure.
- Sudden hypervisor shutdown.
Supported hypervisors
- VMware ESXi
- VMware vSphere
- Microsoft Hyper-V
- Proxmox VE
- Nutanix AHV
- Citrix Hypervisor
- Oracle VirtualBox
- XenServer
Supported formats
- VMDK
- VHD
- VHDX
- QCOW
- QCOW2
- VDI
- XVA
- RAW
- IMG
Remote intervention
When the media remain accessible, our engineers can work remotely to analyse the virtual files, snapshots and datastores involved.
Client case study
An SME hosting its ERP system on VMware ESXi contacted us after a maintenance operation left several VMDK files unusable.
After rebuilding the virtual disks and analysing the VMware metadata, the Chronodisk team brought the critical applications back into production in under 48 hours.
Advice from Chronodisk
Incidents affecting a virtual machine can often be made worse by inappropriate handling. An accidental deletion, a corrupted datastore or a faulty snapshot don’t necessarily mean the data is permanently lost. Adopting the right reflexes as soon as you notice the first signs of trouble maximises your chances of recovery. If you run into a problem, we recommend that you:
- Avoid repeatedly restarting the affected hypervisor.
- Do not delete existing snapshots, even if they seem unusable.
- Avoid making any changes to the VMware, Hyper-V or Proxmox configuration.
- Do not format the affected volumes or datastores.
- Do not attempt to manually rebuild VMDK, VHD or QCOW2 files.
- Do not migrate or convert the affected virtual machines.
- Avoid any further writes to the impacted storage.
- Keep a copy of the hypervisor’s configuration files and logs if possible.
By keeping your virtualised environment in its original state, you significantly reduce the risk of permanent loss and improve the chances of recovering your virtual machines and critical data.