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am312
Contributor
Contributor

Recover/remove password from running encrypted VM ?

I created an encrypted VM and it is running in VMware player.  I subsequently lost the password.  I copied the running files to another machine and tried to start it under workstation.  As expected it asked me if I want to take ownership since the files were copied in running state, and I say yes.   It then prompts me for the password to start the encrypted VM.  Is there any way around this problem particularly considering that the VM is currently running on another machine?

Thanks!

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

Even if you had the password the likelihood of it being corrupted is high since you copied it while it was running! Smiley Wink

Anyway that's irrelevant because without the forgotten password that copied VM is nothing more then wasted space on the disk and might as well be deleted because there is no practical way to retrieve the password! Smiley Wink

If you still have the VM running on the other Host then I'd make sure that you, from within the running Guest OS, backup off of the Guest OSes Filesystem any User Data that you do not want to loose.  Once you're sure you have all User Data and Settings as might be required backed up then it's time to create a new VM.

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