vmkfstools -V Or find the partition device ID:
partedUtil get /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6000c29... Let’s say the disk has 4294967296 sectors. The original VMFS partition likely started at sector 2048 and ended at the last sector minus 1.
Clicking "New Datastore" writes a new VMFS header and partition table, which will overwrite the old one. Once that happens, recovery goes from "moderate" to "forensic excavation."
And if all else fails? Professional recovery tools exist for a reason. But start with the CLI. You might surprise yourself.
esxcli storage vmfs snapshot mount -l YourDatastoreName If that fails, use vmfs6-recover (available in ESXi 7.x+):
Few things trigger a SysAdmin’s fight-or-flight response like logging into vSphere and seeing a datastore showing as "Not Mounted" or "Invalid Partition" . Your heart sinks. VMs are down. Backups? Let’s not talk about that right now.