extract IMG files

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ofnd
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:57 am

Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:08 am

Hi There,

I've just installed the free version and I could easily generate a ESXi 6 additional datastore from a Windows 7 Pro PC. It will serve as an off-site (VPN) backup for an Windows Server 2012 r2 E virtualised.

Now I wanted to make sure that we can easily browse for the data in case of disaster. Is it possible to browse an img file and retrieve the data easily? I tried with 7zip but I could not.

Thank you very much,
Best,
ofnd
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anton (staff)
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Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:24 am

Yes IMGs are actually binary "dumps" of the whole virtual LUN. They have some offset (typically 64K) used by StarWind itself so you have to check your XML for IMG manually to see this actual offset and ask 7zip or other browser to skip it. Simple :)
ofnd wrote:Hi There,

I've just installed the free version and I could easily generate a ESXi 6 additional datastore from a Windows 7 Pro PC. It will serve as an off-site (VPN) backup for an Windows Server 2012 r2 E virtualised.

Now I wanted to make sure that we can easily browse for the data in case of disaster. Is it possible to browse an img file and retrieve the data easily? I tried with 7zip but I could not.

Thank you very much,
Best,
ofnd
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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ofnd
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:57 am

Fri Jul 31, 2015 10:55 am

Hi Anton,

Thank you for your quick reply. I am not sure to understand concretely how to do that. When I open the IMG file I have a 0.img file and in 7zip it show 512 offset. So now I don't understand how to make 7zip avoiding these 512 offset. Command line? Could you please advise on how to do it?

Thank you again,
Best,
OFND
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anton (staff)
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Fri Jul 31, 2015 6:07 pm

Please ask on your application support forum. We're StarWind here and not 7zip :)
ofnd wrote:Hi Anton,

Thank you for your quick reply. I am not sure to understand concretely how to do that. When I open the IMG file I have a 0.img file and in 7zip it show 512 offset. So now I don't understand how to make 7zip avoiding these 512 offset. Command line? Could you please advise on how to do it?

Thank you again,
Best,
OFND
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

Image
ofnd
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:57 am

Fri Aug 07, 2015 2:20 pm

Hi Anton,

if it is so simple could you provide me the easy steps to do it because I tried to find how to do it on the web but it seems that I cannot find the way.

Thank you again Anton,
Best,
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anton (staff)
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Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:19 pm

Try OSFMount from PassMark (just for Chris sake don't use their disk benchmark utility!) from here:

http://www.osforensics.com/tools/mount-disk-images.html

Open IMG and set "Image file offset" to proper value from StarWind corresponding IMG's XML file.
ofnd wrote:Hi Anton,

if it is so simple could you provide me the easy steps to do it because I tried to find how to do it on the web but it seems that I cannot find the way.

Thank you again Anton,
Best,
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

Image
ofnd
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:57 am

Mon Aug 10, 2015 7:49 am

Hi Anton,

I am still unsuccessful to open the img despite many test. I ma y have missed something. I found the XML file (attached) but I am not sure that value should I take. You mentioned 64 KBytes but it did not work for me.
XML.jpg
XML.jpg (182.13 KiB) Viewed 7371 times
I attached the error message I get when I mount it and also the mounting procedure.
Error.jpg
Error.jpg (17.55 KiB) Viewed 7371 times
Mounting2.jpg
Mounting2.jpg (51.19 KiB) Viewed 7371 times
Thank you for guiding me on this.

Best,
ofnd
Vladislav (Staff)
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Posts: 180
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:31 pm

Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:20 am

Hi ofnd,

Just 2 things:
  • The offset varies for different StarWind versions and the latest version has no offset at all (0 offset)
  • I am afraid, that VMFS5 is not Windows browsable file system
ofnd
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:57 am

Thu Aug 13, 2015 12:09 pm

Thank you for your reply,

so what should have been so easy became impossible. At least I know that now.

Thank you anyway,
Best,
ofnd
Delo123
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:15 pm

Thu Aug 13, 2015 3:02 pm

Sigh....
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anton (staff)
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Thu Aug 13, 2015 4:37 pm

Guys don't panic :) You can try this one:

https://www.petri.com/access-vmfs-volum ... mware-host

Good luck :)
Regards,
Anton Kolomyeytsev

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Architect, StarWind Software

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Vladislav (Staff)
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Posts: 180
Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2015 4:31 pm

Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:00 am

I believe that it's possible, but requires some creativity and applying of a weird workaround. For example, look toward a nested virtualization (ESX inside Hyper-V and so on)

And also it's better to ask VMware about its vmfs5.
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