Fix for VMWare error: Could not open virtual machine, this virtual machine appears to be in use

by admin on April 2, 2009

This morning I received the following error when trying to power on a VMware Workstation virtual machine:

Could not open virtual machine: C:\VMs\Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition.vmx. This virtual machine appears to be in use.

To resolve the issue, I deleted all of the .lck files and directories in the guest’s directory listed above. This allowed me to start my VM. I encounter this error from time to time, yet always forget how to resolve it.

{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }

upgrade April 29, 2009 at 2:47 pm

It worked. Thanks

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mohamed August 8, 2009 at 12:01 am

thanx

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M Raziq August 26, 2009 at 12:59 pm

it worked perfectly thank you very much….

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eqn September 8, 2009 at 7:21 am

it’s work so great. thanks a lot :)

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Jens October 21, 2009 at 3:56 pm

It works perfect! Thanks a lot!

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Andrea November 5, 2009 at 4:51 pm

It works perfectly !!!! thank u very much !!!

Reply

Matt November 27, 2009 at 10:14 am

Hi there,

It works, but…
A couple of minutes after the virtual machine, VMware displays a message…
Somthing about the directory already exists, bla bla,
do you want to overwrite? [YES] or [NO]
Which one should I choose?
(I will try to give you the exact message in a few minutes)

Reply

vinay December 6, 2009 at 4:01 am

thanx. it worked

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XXS January 23, 2010 at 5:31 am

Thank you very much!!! :D

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Tonny March 13, 2010 at 1:44 pm

Thanks , great

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orji March 17, 2010 at 1:55 pm

it worked thanks

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Justin June 14, 2010 at 6:44 am

Thanks, you are a legend.

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Siraj July 20, 2010 at 7:16 pm

Great!!! it worked thanks.

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Rishi Raghuvanshi September 15, 2010 at 11:17 am

thank you, I was having this problem for the last 2 months!

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Ariovaldo September 15, 2010 at 8:00 pm

Man, awesome, very simple and effective, thank you very much!

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Hammad October 27, 2010 at 12:51 pm

Thanks a million!

Reply

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