If your datastore resides on a SAN/NAS with snapshot capability (NetApp, Pure, Dell EMC, Nimble):

Restoring a deleted VMDK requires immediate action to prevent data overwrite and utilizes tools available within the VMware ecosystem or third-party solutions. Always have a robust backup strategy in place to minimize data loss.

: If accessible, copy the VMDK to another location.

esxcli storage vmfs undelete recover -d [datastore_name] -f "[datastore] path/to/deleted.vmdk"

: Stop all write operations to the datastore immediately. Any new data can overwrite the deleted VMDK’s sectors.