Hi Glenn,
Normally all of the VM is contained within the .vmwarevm bundle.
If you copy that bundle to an external disk - with the VM shut down, not suspended - then you should be OK.
It is recommended to delete all snapshots (including any autoprotect ones if you use that feature) before making that copy.
Not sure why a .vmsd file would be outside of the bundle. That's a bit weird, most likely it is a stray file that is no longer part of the VM. FWIW, the .vmsd is a file that contains hints about the snapshots in your VM.
If your VM has no snapshots, then that file is empty.
When you want to move the VM to another machine, the steps are to copy the bundle to its destination and then use File -> Open.
This will register the VM with the new VMware Fusion.
On startup of the VM, VMware Fusion will ask if you copied or moved the VM. It is important to select "Move" here as otherwise you will get a completely new set of virtual hardware ID's and your windows will need to be reactivated. (Maybe also your expensive software)
As you are going to install on new hardware, there's a few additional notes.
1. You cannot use VMware Fusion on Apple Silicon. First off, it isn't compatible with the M1 processor, second, even if it was, your Windows wouldn't run as it only runs on intel (and Rosetta doesn't work for VMs)
2. New hardware always comes with the latest version of macOS, so you'll be running Big Sur. The only version of VMware Fusion that works on Big Sur is VMware Fusion 12.
You can download a copy here:
https://vmware.com/go/getfusion
One final note.
There is another way to make a backup of your VM. I happened to have written software for that (see my signature). It can do a few more things like making a backup while your VM is running.
However the more interesting part for you might be that it has a lot of extra checks.
For example, it makes a checksum of every file in your virtual machine on backup and when you restore it verifies that all those files match. If there's a single bit or byte different during the copy than that will be reported and you can act on that.
You do _not_ need to use my software. The steps I wrote before my "One final note" work perfectly fine without it, I'm just saying that you can use it and the free version works fine for that (also on El Capitan, tested that just 14 days ago for another user)
Hope this helps,
--
Wil
