What virtual disk formats does UTM use?

UTM supports the following virtual disk formats:VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk)QCOW2 (QEMU Copy-On-Write)VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)RAW (Raw disk image)IMG (Generic disk image)

How is UTM different from VirtualBox or Parallels?

UTM (Universal Turing Machine) is different from VirtualBox and Parallels in several ways:UTM is a virtualization tool specifically designed for running virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs, while VirtualBox and Parallels are more general-purpose virtualization software that can run on a variety of platforms.UTM is open-source software, meaning it is free to use and its source code is publicly available for anyone to modify and distribute. VirtualBox and Parallels are proprietary software that require a license fee to use.UTM is focused on providing a simple and user-friendly interface for creating and managing virtual machines, while VirtualBox and Parallels offer more advanced features and customization options for power users.UTM is still in the early stages of development and may not have all the features and stability of VirtualBox and Parallels, which have been around for much longer and are more established in the virtualization market.

Most common causes of UTM virtual machine corruption?

Hardware failure: Hardware issues such as disk failure, memory corruption, or network card failure can lead to UTM virtual machine corruption.Power failure: Sudden power outages or improper shutdown of the virtual machine can cause corruption of the UTM virtual machine.Software bugs: Bugs in the UTM software or in the hypervisor software can also lead to corruption of the virtual machine.Malware or virus infection: Malicious software can infect the UTM virtual machine and cause corruption of the system files.Human error: Accidental deletion of important files or misconfiguration of the virtual machine settings can also result in corruption.Insufficient resources: Running out of disk space, memory, or CPU resources can cause the UTM virtual machine to become unstable and corrupt.Incompatible software: Installing incompatible software or drivers on the UTM virtual machine can lead to corruption of the system files.Network issues: Problems with the network connection, such as packet loss or latency, can also cause corruption of the UTM virtual machine.

How to use Hetman Partition Recovery to restore a VM?

To restore a virtual machine (VM) using Hetman Partition Recovery, follow these steps:Download and install Hetman Partition Recovery on your computer.Launch the software and select the drive where the VM was stored.Click on the 'Next' button to start the scanning process.Once the scanning is complete, Hetman Partition Recovery will display a list of recoverable files and partitions.Look for the VM file or partition in the list and select it.Click on the 'Recovery' button to restore the VM to a location of your choice.Wait for the recovery process to complete, and then access the restored VM using your virtualization software.It is important to note that Hetman Partition Recovery may not be able to recover all data from a VM, especially if the file has been overwritten or corrupted. It is recommended to regularly back up your VMs to prevent data loss.

How to prevent future VM corruption in UTM?

Regularly update the UTM software: Ensure that your UTM software is always up to date with the latest security patches and updates to prevent vulnerabilities that could lead to VM corruption.Implement proper backup and recovery procedures: Regularly back up your VMs and ensure that you have a reliable recovery plan in place in case of corruption or data loss.Monitor VM performance: Keep an eye on the performance of your VMs and address any issues that could potentially lead to corruption, such as high resource usage or disk errors.Use reliable storage solutions: Choose reliable storage solutions for your VMs, such as RAID configurations or cloud storage, to minimize the risk of data corruption.Implement security best practices: Follow security best practices, such as implementing strong access controls, using encryption, and regularly auditing and monitoring your UTM environment to prevent unauthorized access and potential corruption.Train staff on best practices: Educate your staff on best practices for maintaining and securing VMs to prevent corruption, such as avoiding risky behavior like downloading unauthorized software or clicking on suspicious links.Regularly test and validate backups: Regularly test and validate your backups to ensure that they are working properly and can be relied upon in the event of corruption or data loss.

How to Recover Data From a Non-Operational UTM Virtual Machine

Author: Vladimir Artiukh
Editor: Oleg Afonin
Updated: 21.08.2025 12:11

Read this article to find out how to recover data from a non-operational UTM virtual machine on MacOS. How to create and configure a virtual machine, what to do if it’s damaged or won’t start, and how to restore its operability.

Contents

UTM is a free and open-source emulator and virtualization tool for macOS, which is based on QEMU. It allows users to run various Windows and Linux operating systems inside macOS. UTM doesn’t require any drivers to be installed, it works in the user’s environment, and supports both Intel and Apple Silicon CPUs. Thanks to a most convenient interface, even novice users can create a virtual machine without effort. Within a few minutes, we’ll explore how to create and configure a Windows virtual machine.

Go to view

🔷 How to Recover Data of an Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual Machine 🔷

Why virtual machine data can be lost

For starters, let’s explore why access to virtual machine data could ever be lost.

The first thing that may occur is accidental removal of your files. Most of the time, it happens when a file is accidentally sent to the Recycle Bin, or when the Recycle Bin is emptied in the virtual operating system.
Another cause of data loss is when the virtual disk gets damaged or deleted. A virtual hard disk of the UTM hypervisor is a file with the extension .utm or .qcow2. When the file is damaged, the virtual machine will not boot.
One more thing to cause trouble is various failures when installing apps, drivers or updates. In its turn, such situation may corrupt the data structure.
An unexpected shutdown of the virtual machine can also affect your data. For example, if your macOS freezes, you choose to restart the computer, and this is why the virtual disk may be overwritten with some errors.
Finally, system failures inside UTM itself or macOS internal issues might also cause a bit of trouble.

No.	Cause	Description
1	Deleting a virtual machine	Accidental or deliberate removal of a VM, manually or via the UTM interface.
2	Disk image damaged	The .utm or .qcow2 file may be damaged due to a system failure, emergency shutdown etc.
3	UTM update errors	Incorrect updates may affect compatibility with older machines.
4	A macOS failure	System errors or file system failures may damage virtual machine files.
5	Disk formatting	Users may accidentally format the volume containing VM images.
6	Hardware failures	Issues affecting SSD, external drive or other storage devices.
7	Moving or renaming files manually	Changes in the UTM folder structure without consideration of their relations may result in boot failure.
8	Conflicts involving other hypervisors	Installation of other VM software may cause conflicts concerning access to resources.
9	Deleting data inside a VM	Errors in the guest system (for example, Linux or Windows inside UTM) may cause a loss of files.
10	Encryption or viruses	Encryption software or malware inside the guest OS may destroy or encrypt data.

UTM virtual machine files

By default, UTM virtual machines are stored in the Documents folder.

Users/User name/library/containers/UTM/Data/Documents

If the default path was modified during initial setup, go to the previously specified folder – you can see it in the virtual machine settings.

Search the folder for a file with the extension .utm. This file is the container for the whole virtual machine. Right-click on it and select Show package contents.

Inside it, you should see a file with the extension .qcow2 - which is the actual virtual disk file. It is from that file that we are going to retrieve the important files stored on your virtual machine.

How to retrieve files from a non-operational UTM virtual machine

If your virtual machine won’t boot, a special data recovery tool called Hetman Partition Recovery will help you retrieve important files. This utility supports all popular file systems as well as most hypervisor apps, including the virtualization solution by UTM.

Partition Recovery™ 5.1

The tool recovers data from any devices, regardless of the cause of data loss.

Download

Go to its website hetmanrecovery.com and download the tool. Choose the version for macOS.

Hetman Partition Recovery: version for macOS

Now install it just like any other app, and drag the shortcut to the folder containing your programs.

The utility needs full access to hard disks to work properly. Do it by opening the Settings and granting the utility full access to disk.

Hetman Partition Recovery: full access to disk

Start the utility - remember to type the administrator password. As a result, you’ll see a list of all connected drives.

Hetman Partition Recovery: list of all connected drives

However, to retrieve files from the virtual disk you need to mount it in the recovery tool. To do it:

Click on Tools - Mount Disk.
From the list, select virtual machine files with the extension .qcow2, and then give the path to the virtual disk image – and earlier in this video, we have already found its storage directory. When the full path to such folder is ready, click ОК.
The disk will appear in the main window. To scan the disk, right-click on it and choose Open, then select the scan type – Fast Scan or Full analysis.

To begin with, we recommend running a Fast Scan first - it will take less time and help you find the files in most scenarios involving data loss.
If the Fast scan can’t find the required files, then go for Full analysis.

A full analysis will take longer since it makes use of a more complicated search algorithm.
To run it, return to the main menu, right-click on the disk and choose Analyze again, Full analysis.
Choose the file system – Next.
When the scan is over, open the folder where the lost files used to be. For your convenience, there is a preview feature to see the file contents. Select everything you want to restore, and click the Recovery button.
Then choose where to save the items (the disk and folder) and hit Recovery again.
You will find the recovered files in the folder you have chosen.

This way, even if the virtual machine is damaged and it won’t boot, you’ll be able to retrieve its data directly.

How to recover files of a .qcow2 virtual disk files

Also, you can use Hetman Partition Recovery to restore accidentally deleted qcow2 virtual disk files.

If the virtual disk files were stored on a removable disk, and you accidentally deleted them or erased the disk, this recovery tool can retrieve them easily, thus restoring the operability of the virtual machine.

Scan the removable disk - right-click on it - Open.

Hetman Partition Recovery: scanning a removable drive

Choose the scan type.

Find the virtual disk file and recover it. Select the ones you need and click Recovery.

Hetman Partition Recovery: Find the virtual disk file

After recovery, you’ll be able to restore operability of your virtual machine by placing the virtual disk file to its original location, or using it to replace the damaged virtual disk file.

Configuring a new UTM virtual machine

Before you move on to the next recovery method, you need to understand how to create and configure a new virtual machine in UTM.

For starters, let’s install UTM. Visit its official website and download the app. After that, install it just like any other program.
Then open UTM and click on the button Create a New Virtual Machine.
Select virtualization type.
When choosing the operating system, go for Windows (or Linux, if necessary).
When configuring the disk, choose Boot ISO image and select the previously saved .qcow2 file.
Assign a certain amount of RAM (for example, 4 or 8 GB), depending on your computer’s hardware.
Make sure that you have enabled support for USB, network and other components.
Hit Save. Now you can start the virtual machine.

If the hard disk won’t boot, don’t worry: you’ll be able to retrieve its information with a good data recovery tool.

How to recover UTM virtual machine files with the help of Time Machine

If you back up your virtual machine regularly with Time Machine, you’ll be able to recover accidentally deleted files and restore operability of the virtual machine within a few minutes. To do it:

Go to the folder where your virtual machine used to be stored and open Time Machine.
Now select a backup with the date when your virtual disk file still existed, and click Restore.
After the operation is over, the virtual machine should start working as before.

If the virtual machine won’t run, try connecting it manually. A little earlier in this article, you could see how to do it.

How to avoid loss of UTM virtual machine data

To make sure such situations won’t happen again, here is some advice to help you avoid data loss:

First of all, back up your virtual machines on a regular basis. Just copy the .utm file to a cloud storage or an external drive.
Second, do not force the virtual machine to shut down. Always shut down the guest operating system first, and then power off the UTM, so you can avoid damaging the operating system or the virtual disk.
Third, you shouldn’t store very important files only inside the virtual machine. Use syncing with macOS or cloud services.

Conclusion

Summing up, we have explored several ways of restoring access to the files of a non-operational QEMU-based UTM virtual machine.

To avoid similar issues in the future, remember to back up important data to an external drive or a cloud storage.

Also, try not to run a virtual machine after a loss of data occurs, and avoid copying large files to the machine, so that the deleted data will not be overwritten.