If the partition table is missing but the device exists, VMFS metadata may still be recoverable. Scenario A: Accidental Deletion of Datastore (but not reformatted) When you "delete" a datastore in vSphere, only the VMFS volume header and UUID are removed. Data remains until overwritten.
# Find VMFS partition start (in sectors) using a hexdump dd if=/dev/disks/naa.XXX of=/tmp/header bs=512 count=2048 | hexdump -C | grep "VMFS" Recreate partition entry (example: start sector 2048, end sector auto) partedUtil set /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.XXX 1 2048 <end> 0 recovering vmfs datastore
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot list Output example: If the partition table is missing but the