Step 4: She used dd to copy that backup block over the primary superblock (after making a full LUN image with ddrescue to a separate 12-TB drive—insurance). # dd if=/dev/sde1 bs=1M skip=512 count=1 of=primary_superblock_backup.bin Then, using vimfstools (from a recovered ESXi maintenance mode session): # vmkfstools -B recover /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000...:1
Step 6: Re-register each VM from the configuration file: # find /vmfs/volumes/Prod-HighSpeed -name "*.vmx" -exec vim-cmd solo/registervm {} \; recover vmfs datastore
VMware now saw the storage, but as a fresh, unmounted volume. The partition table? Intact. The VMFS superblock? Unknown. Step 4: She used dd to copy that
Success: Found backup VMFS6 superblock at 0x20000000 . Intact
The datastore reappeared in the vSphere Client. VMs showed as "unknown"—expected. She browsed the datastore: all VM folders, .vmdk , .vmx files intact.
Step 1: Identify the device. fdisk -l showed /dev/sde as 12 TB, with partition 1 (VMFS) starting at sector 2048. Good—partition still there.