Hacked Azure VM, how to recover data?

Question

I believe a virtual machine I was running got hacked, because the username and password doesn't work. I think the server banned my computer because I tried the old password too much, so I tried from other devices, and it still doesn't work. I saw this article, and it says that I can't change password from Azure management portal, but I can recover my data. How exactly do I do that?

Update: I got it to work the way mentioned in the link, with help from Chad.

Answer 1

A virtual machine is based on an image in a storage container. It takes a bit to track down the right VHD, but if it is one that MS created for you, it should be something like name_of_your_CloudService_name_of_your_VM.vhd, and it will probably be in the VHDs container.

You could download this VHD and bring it up in something like VirtualBox, or you could try spinning up another VM based on that image. Either way, your data should all still be there provided you are able to log into the machine.

EDIT: As your link suggests, deleting your corrupt VM, spinning up a new VM and attaching the disk would be a good way to get access to your data. Simply click on the "Attach" button at the bottom of the virtual machines section of your dashboard of your new VM and choose existing disk. Browse to the VM and attach.