Unable to remove drives -- the remove button is disabled

[cd1111111]

Hello, using workstation 15 pro, latest update.

Host is Windows 10 build 2004.

I have a vm with three virtual drives.

In the vm settings, the "add" button is enabled for drives, the "remove" button is disabled.

I've tried deleting all snapshots to no avail.  The remove button is still disabled.

I manually moved the files for a given drive, and vmware complains the files are missing, but I still can't remove the drive.

I tried searching the forums to no avail.  It seems the search is dysfunctional as none of the results had anything to do with removing a drive.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

[continuum]

A suspended VM is  the most probable reason for the GUI to disable the remove button.

A snapshot chain with „hot“ snapshots would be another good reason to disable the button.

In other cases the GUI disables buttons for no good reasons at all - just get used to it and help yourself.

A VM is ruled by the settings in the vmx- file - the GUI is supposed to reflect that but it is not perfect, never has been and never will.

So if you want to change the config of your VM and the GUI does not allow it first figure out if your config-change will be safe.

If you think it is safe, or if you want to enforce a change that is unsafe - edit the vmx file while no tab in the GUI has loaded your Vm and it is not running in the background.

To disable lets say virtual disk scsiX:Y set the scsiX:Y.present parameter to false.

[cd1111111]

Thanks.  The VM is definitely powered off and not suspended.

I tried your route of modifying the config file directly, and my VMX file seems to only have encryption.keySafe and encyrption.data, the contents of which are encrypted.

(I'm using the TPM module, which I guess is what caused this ... but shouldn't cause me to be unable to remove a drive?)

[continuum]

Ok -  encryped VMs is another good reason why buttons are disabled.

You will have to remove the encryption first.

When you use encrypted VMs be careful with moving files - in worst case that can prevent  a removal of the encryption.

[cd1111111]

Thanks.  I checked the vmware docs for the tpm module, and nowhere does it say that will prevent drive removal.

I'll live with this I guess, since removing encryption can go south.