topic VMWare Workstation 16 - how remove one of several encrypted disks in VMware Workstation Pro Discussions

VMWare Workstation 16 - how remove one of several encrypted disks

kasper — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 22:42:46 GMT

WS 16 on Win 10 21h1. Setup a UEFI secure boot access control encrypted disks and TPM for Win 11. I now want to remove one of the disks but the 'remove' button is greyed out / not available. How do I reconfigure the guest machine and remove a disk?

Thank you.

Re: VMWare Workstation 16 - how remove one of several encrypted disks

btmp — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 20:57:41 GMT

As it's called 'Access Control' Encryption my first guess would be that you need to decrypt it. That way it becomes a regular VM again which will allow you to edit or reconfigure it normally.

Re: VMWare Workstation 16 - how remove one of several encrypted disks

kasper — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 21:04:33 GMT

I sort of tried that and ran into some issue. I need to try that again with focus.

I am also using TPM so it may be that uncrypting, removing, and then encrypting

flags the TPM setup make it unbootable...

Re: VMWare Workstation 16 - how remove one of several encrypted disks

btmp — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 21:31:00 GMT

'Access Control' Encryption via Workstation is an outer layer of encryption. Removing that layer, in itself, won't alter the contents (aside from the actual decryption of existing data back to a standard 'unencrypted' format) of the VM. As for removing 'this' disk or 'that' disk or editing this preference etc..I cannot say as I do not know your VMs layout or setup internally. I suppose if you are worried about it or do run into issues you could start by disabling SecureBoot inside the VM before doing the rest. Good Luck!