Encrypting Windows 10 VM

[sacohen9665]

I am trying to encrypt my Windows 10 VM and after I go thru the process of setting the password and remembering it on my iMac keychain I get the following message and I'm not sure how to check to make sure it is not using a disk from an encrypted virtual machine.

Thanks for the assistance.

Steve

[sacohen9665]

Really? No one has any information or suggestions on this error message?

[wila]

Hi,

The forum is not an official support channel from VMware.

Most of the people here helping out are volunteers and other users, like me.

WIth that out of the way.
There's not a lot of info for us to help you with. I know this error can happen if you encrypt a VM but there's not enough free disk space to complete the operation.
The question on what _did_ get encrypted and what part didn't isn't answered by that (although hopefully the disk is still unencrypted)

If the disk is unencrypted then you can try creating a new VM, but point to the existing disk in the VM's bundle. I would use the "copy" option if you have sufficient free disk space or the "take away from original VM" if not sufficient free space is available.

If OTOH the disk is already encrypted then I'm not aware of a way to recover from it without writing a program to decrypt the disk.

Note that this is all purely hypothetical as we haven't seen any details beyond your screenshot of the error.

--
Wil

[sacohen9665]

If you are talking about the physical MAC hard drive it is not encrypted. FileVault is turned off. 
I don't see anything in the VMware preferences that says that it is encrypted.
In the VM Settings, the Encryption is not enabled.

The original message said that "...one of its components is already encrypted.", but I don't know how to tell what is encrypted.
From what I can see nothing is.

"Note that this is all purely hypothetical as we haven't seen any details beyond your screenshot of the error."
What details beyond my screenshot error would you need to see?

Is there a link or email address for official VMware support?
I looked through the site but was unable to find anything.

Thanks again;

Steve

 

[Technogeezer]

The answer may lie in other parts of your virtual machine configuration.

Here's more information you can upload that might help us figure out what's going on.

Start by right clicking on the virtual machine name in the Virtual Machine Library, Select the resulting menu item "Show in Finder" which will open the enclosing folder containing the virtual machine.

Then right-click on the virtual machine in that Finder window and select "Open Package Contents". Another window will open with all of the files that make up your virtual machine.

Paste screen shots of that window so we can see all of the files present. Also make a copy of the file with the extension .vmx, and post here as well. That should give us an idea about your virtual machine configuration and might help us figure out what file may be giving you a problem.

[sacohen9665]

Thanks for your help Technogeezer.
Here is a screenshot of the Package Contents that you asked for.
The Page won't let me upload the copy of the vmx file that you wanted.|

I'm not sure if you want the vmx file of a screenshot of it.

I hope this helps.

 

[Technogeezer]

Take that copy of the .vmx file and zip it up. Or change the name of your copy and add a .txt extension. Then it will be accepted for upload (see the error message in red in your screen shot). 

[sacohen9665]

Here is the zipped vmx file.
I sent both the zip and the txt.

[wila]

Hi,

The .vmx is not encrypted.
Can you please also attach the file Windows 10 Home-0.vmdk (3kB in size), you also have to zip it before you can attach it to a reply.

edit: Please also add a vmware.log (or all of them) to the zip.

--
Wil

[sacohen9665]

I didn't think the vmx was encrypted.
Sorry, my mind is a bit off.
I have diabetes and my blood sugar has been all over the place. 
I've had 2 diabetic comas this week so I'm a little confused about things.
Here are the zipped files that you wanted.

[wila]

No need to apologize.

Not seeing anything in the .vmdk or the logs about the VM being encrypted or problems with that.

Also no mention about the inconsistent state, so I'm a little confused too.

From the looks of it, everything is fine.

There's two files left that we did not see that might have gotten encrypted during your encryption attempt that can still cause this issue. That's the .vmxf and the .nvram file. Those files can be safely deleted as they will be recreated on boot of the VM (or alternatively, rename instead of delete)

Hope your diabetics improves a bit (if possible).

--
Wil

[sacohen9665]

Thanks. I will try to delete or rename those files later and see what happens.
The diabetes will never go away, it's just a matter of learning how to control the sugar levels better after I eat something.

"There's two files left that we did not see that might have gotten encrypted during your encryption attempt that can still cause this issue. That's the .vmxf and the .nvram file. Those files can be safely deleted as they will be recreated on boot of the VM (or alternatively, rename instead of delete)"
This looks like it may have worked.