On a Mac OS X Sierra (macOS) machine running VMWare Fusion 8.5 I got the same error.
To identify the damaged file I ran the following command from within Terminal:
find "/Users/<userid>/Documents/Virtual Machines/<name of VM>/" -name "*.vmdk" -type f -exec "/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager" -e '{}' \;
This command finds all the .vmdk files in a VM and then runs the vmware-vdiskmanager command against them individually.
One of the files reported:
Failed to open the disk '/Users/<userid>/Documents/Virtual Machines/<name of VM>/<damaged file>.vmdk' : The specified virtual disk needs repair (0x3e86).
This file was repaired using the "-R" flag on vmware-vdiskmanager:
"/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager" -R /path/to/damaged.vmdk
The virtual disk, '/path/to/damaged.vmdk', was corrupted and has been successfully repaired.
I was then able to Clean Up and start the VM normally.
Reference:
"/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager" --help
/Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager: illegal option -- -
VMware Virtual Disk Manager - build 4352717.
Usage: vmware-vdiskmanager OPTIONS <disk-name> | <mount-point>
Offline disk manipulation utility
Operations, only one may be specified at a time:
-c : create disk. Additional creation options must
be specified. Only local virtual disks can be
created.
-d : defragment the specified virtual disk. Only
local virtual disks may be defragmented.
-k : shrink the specified virtual disk. Only local
virtual disks may be shrunk.
-n <source-disk> : rename the specified virtual disk; need to
specify destination disk-name. Only local virtual
disks may be renamed.
-p : prepare the mounted virtual disk specified by
the volume path for shrinking.
-r <source-disk> : convert the specified disk; need to specify
destination disk-type. For local destination disks
the disk type must be specified.
-x <new-capacity> : expand the disk to the specified capacity. Only
local virtual disks may be expanded.
-R : check a sparse virtual disk for consistency and attempt
to repair any errors.
-e : check for disk chain consistency.
-D : make disk deletable. This should only be used on disks
that have been copied from another product.
Other Options:
-q : do not log messages
Additional options for create and convert:
-a <adapter> : (for use with -c only) adapter type
(ide, buslogic, lsilogic). Pass lsilogic for other adapter types.
-s <size> : capacity of the virtual disk
-t <disk-type> : disk type id
Disk types:
0 : single growable virtual disk
1 : growable virtual disk split in 2GB files
2 : preallocated virtual disk
3 : preallocated virtual disk split in 2GB files
4 : preallocated ESX-type virtual disk
5 : compressed disk optimized for streaming
6 : thin provisioned virtual disk - ESX 3.x and above
The capacity can be specified in sectors, KB, MB or GB.
The acceptable ranges:
ide/scsi adapter : [1MB, 8192.0GB]
buslogic adapter : [1MB, 2040.0GB]
ex 1: vmware-vdiskmanager -c -s 850MB -a ide -t 0 myIdeDisk.vmdk
ex 2: vmware-vdiskmanager -d myDisk.vmdk
ex 3: vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 0 destinationDisk.vmdk
ex 4: vmware-vdiskmanager -x 36GB myDisk.vmdk
ex 5: vmware-vdiskmanager -n sourceName.vmdk destinationName.vmdk
ex 6: vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 4 -h esx-name.mycompany.com \
-u username -f passwordfile "[storage1]/path/to/targetDisk.vmdk"
ex 7: vmware-vdiskmanager -k myDisk.vmdk
ex 8: vmware-vdiskmanager -p <mount-point>
(A virtual disk first needs to be mounted at <mount-point>)
