What does HRESULT 0xC03A0006 (ERROR_VHD_SPARSE_HEADER_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH) mean?

Status / error code:

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Constant name:

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Operating System:

Description:

The virtual hard disk is corrupted. The sparse header checksum does not match the on-disk checksum.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
STATUS_VHD_SPARSE_HEADER_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH	NTSTATUS	Windows

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ERROR_VHD_FORMAT_UNSUPPORTED_VERSION	ERROR_VHD_SPARSE_HEADER_UNSUPPORTED_VERSION

ERROR_VHD_SPARSE_HEADER_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH

ERROR_VHD_SPARSE_HEADER_CHECKSUM_MISMATCH means the checksum of the sparse header in a dynamic or differencing legacy VHD does not validate. The header describes the layout needed to interpret the disk safely.

What to verify

Treat the VHD as structurally corrupted and do not attach it read-write.
Check whether the file was copied, restored, deduplicated, or resized shortly before the failure.
If it is part of a chain, preserve every parent and child file; missing context can make recovery less reliable.

Test-VHD -Path "D:\Recovery\child.vhd"

Microsoft: Test-VHD

Microsoft: Get-VHD

Microsoft: Merge-VHD

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