ESXi 6.5 virtual machine stopped starting after copying vmdk to another hard drive. How to be?

Question

VMware

I needed a copy of the virtual machine, I foolishly copied the vmdk file to another disk in ESXi, the first time the machine started up normally, but the second time it crashed and stopped starting, supposedly does not see the vmdk in the folder, although in fact it is there, t .to. When I try to re-copy it says:

Failed - Cannot complete the operation because the file or folder [WD RED RAID1] Asterisk/Asterisk.vmdk already exists

Here is the ESXi log:

Virtual machine
Asterisk_test
State
Failed - File /vmfs/volumes/603629b6-d8121e91-c79f-ac1f6b44ee26/Asterisk_BK/Asterisk.vmdk was not found

Errors
VMware ESX cannot find the virtual disk "/vmfs/volumes/603629b6-d8121e91-c79f-ac1f6b44ee26/Asterisk_BK/Asterisk.vmdk". Verify the path is valid and try again.
File system specific implementation of Lookup[file] failed
File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen[file] failed
File system specific implementation of Lookup[file] failed
File system specific implementation of Lookup[file] failed
The system cannot find the file specified
Cannot open the disk '/vmfs/volumes/603629b6-d8121e91-c79f-ac1f6b44ee26/Asterisk_BK/Asterisk.vmdk' or one of the snapshot disks it depends on.
Module 'Disk' power on failed.
Failed to start the virtual machine.

Please help me with a solution.

Answer 1

In general, the issue was resolved, just as accidentally as it arose.
The whole mechanism of the error was not clear to me.
The problem disappeared after turning off the machine whose disk I copied. I note that initially the disk was copied with the machine turned off.
As a result, ESXi just let me copy the vmdk to the folder where -flat.vmdk already lay. although before that, as I wrote earlier, I did not succeed.