To reduce throttling and API limits, you can now use extra accounts or credentials during GIT and ADO restores.
CHANGELOG
🏠︎ HOME@ WEBSITE↘ FREE TRIAL✉︎ CONTACT SUPPORT

Residual Hyper-V checkpoints remaining after differential disk merge

Issue

Residual virtual machine checkpoints remain visible in Hyper-V Manager after differential disk files (.avhdx) have been merged, and they cannot be removed using standard tools such as Hyper-V Manager or PowerShell.

Cause

Residual checkpoints after .avhdx consolidation are typically caused by metadata desynchronization between the disk files and Hyper-V configuration. This can happen, for example, when differential disks are manually merged using PowerShell while Hyper-V Manager is still open — in this case, the .avhdx files are correctly merged into the base .vhdx file, but the checkpoint metadata is not removed. Other scenarios can also lead to the same issue, but this is one of the most common.

Resolution

Before attempting manual checkpoint removal, ensure that incremental (.avhdx) disks have been successfully merged into the main virtual disk. In the VM’s settings, confirm that the virtual hard disk path points to a .vhdx file, not an .avhdx.

  1. First, for the integrity of the operation, power off the virtual machine (before making any changes).

  2. Open PowerShell as administrator and use the following command (replace [VirtualMachineName] with the actual name of the virtual machine as displayed in Hyper-V Manager):

Get-VMSnapshot -VMName [VirtualMachineName] | Select-Object Name, Id

  1. The command will return the names and IDs of all snapshots associated with the VM.

  1. For more detailed information, you can execute the following command:

Get-VMSnapshot -VMName [VirtualMachineName] | Format-List

  1. In the VM settings (Hyper-V Manager > Settings > Checkpoints > Checkpoint file location), identify the path where snapshots are stored and navigate to this directory in File Explorer. You will find folders and files named according to the snapshot identifiers returned earlier. Do not delete them yet, as they are still locked by the Hyper-V service.

  2. Open the services console (services.msc) and stop the service named Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management Service (VMMS). Alternatively, you can use a PowerShell command:

Stop-Service vmms

  1. Once the service is stopped, delete all folders and files corresponding to the problematic snapshot identifiers.

  2. Restart the previously stopped service using the following command:

Start-Service vmms

  1. Reopen Hyper-V Manager and confirm that the previously persistent checkpoints no longer appear in the list of snapshots.

Last updated