A VMware Workstation lock needs to be picked…

by | Jun 4, 2011 | VMware, Workstation

After a power outage this evening I needed to power up my homelab again.

A couple of VM’s running within VMware Workstation on a Windows 7 Machine couldn’t be started and the following error message did pop up:

Lock01

So what are the steps needed to solve this problem.

  • The first step is to find the VM’s location. Select the VM and in the menu click on VM – Settings (See picture below):

Lock00

  • The virtual Machine Settings screen will open. Click On Hard Disk and then on Utilities (See picture below):

Lock02

  • In the drop down menu click on Map (See picture below):

Lock03

  • In the File Name field you’ll see the exact location of the VM (See picture below):

Lock04

  • Go to the folder in which all VM files are located. C:\Users\Uber\Documents\Virtual Machines\ in my case:

Lock05

  • Right click on the *.lck folder. In the drop down menu click on delete (see picture below):

Lock06

  • It is possible there are multiple *.lck files, delete them all. When done you’ll be able to start the VM in Workstation:

Lock08

Hope your problem is solved with this. If you’ve got a comment, please let me know.