How to edit contents of a vmdk disk image (ext4) on Windows

Question

I'm running Android-x86 on a VMware Virtual Machine. The .vmdk contains a single partition, formatted as ext4, and for that (and other) reasons I simply cannot mount it with the so-called "Disk Mount Utility".

Now, for some reason, my Android VM is not booting, and I want to access the .vmdk file to manually delete the Dalvik Cache folder in an attempt to fix that. Using 7-Zip I can view the contents of the file, but that's it - It's read-only.

So the question is really, how do I go about changing the contents of the .vmdk file on Windows?

Small, simple, portable solutions that doesn't require admin priviledges are favoured.

Thanks.

Solution

How about creating a new VM, running a Linux distro?

Once the new VM is ready, add the Android vmdk file as a second drive. This should mount in Linux with no problem.

Steps (as example, but can be changed as needed):

1. First, create and install a new Virtual Machine, running a Linux distro (e.g. one of Ubuntu, LinuxMint, ArchLinux, Fedora, etc.).
2. Power down the machine.
3. In VMWare Player application, open the VM created in #1.
4. Go to the setting for the VM (e.g. right-click and select Virtual Machine Settings).
5. Select "Add", then select "Hard Drive".
6. Select "SCSI", then "Use existing virtual disk", and then point to your vmdk file.
7. Finish and save settings.
8. Now boot up the Linux VM and you'll find the disk is available for you to use as a normal disk.

Comments

[Marc.2377]

In fact I just created a new VM, booted up the Android-x86 iso image as Live CD, and solved the main issue. Thanks for your suggestion anyway. Still it would be nice if there was (is?) a way to do edit it natively on Windows.

[jehad]

There is something called "VMWare Disk Mount Utility", but I don't use Windows very much, so not sure whether it will work on Windows with an ext4 file system (I would be very surprised if it does work).

[Marc.2377]

It's the utility I mentioned in the question, and you're right - doesn't work, at least "out of the box" :(