Quick question: Is there a way to browse, in Windows Explorer, the contents of a Windows Server 2008 directories, installed on a VM in EXSi 5.5, in order to recover some data files?
Very small operation (K-8 school) and painfully new to VMWare and VSphere. I've searched but I'm probably not using the correct terminology so I'm coming up blank.
ESX is sitting on a Crucial v4 SSD currently connected via USB to a Windows 7 laptop with VSphere client installed. The SSD was a temporary solution while new HDDs were received in replacement for a failed HDD a couple weeks ago.
The physical server which houses this SDD suddenly cannot see the SSD drive and will no longer boot, however I'm able to browse it with no trouble from my laptop. The new HDDs arrived and now I'm in the hasty process of installing ESXi. I would really like to recover one small directory of data files from the SSD. What I'm seeing is attached; drives D, E, H, I and J are all on the SSD. Nothing looks familiar, of course, and I'm wondering if it's even possible to extract the data.
And yes, there isn't a full backup. 
I was out of town last week and I *am* the backup, while this whole drive replacement scenario is taking place. I wasn't here, it didn't get run and so there is about a week's worth of database changes at stake. Not horrendous, but it sure would be nice to recover them. (Incredibly Murphy-like timing on the SSD bailing on me, too.)
Thank you for any direction.
~Jeanne