VM Workstation encryption & virtual TPM

I am just getting into Vmware. I successfully installed Win 11 (DL direct from MS) with encrypted virtual hard drive & virtual TPM using VmWorkstation version 16. Then I thought I would make the virtual HD larger, and I saw the "Expand disk capacity" button. But first, I made a clone to practice on that, and clicked the expand. Entered the new size, and it said "encryption failed."

So I tried the original and that worked. I thought clones were exact copies. Which makes me wonder now about the original after expanding. It did, but will there be any problems with the encrypted hard drive?

The expansion size went well, however it is at the end of the (1)100 mb healthy system (2) C: drive (3)593 MB Healthy Recovery, (4) new unallocated partition. I wanted this to be added to my C: drive but the two partitions are not adjacent to each other so would I need third party software?

But since I encrypted the virtual hard drive when creating this virtual machine, will that affect anything in anyway security wise or running this virtual machine? I know I should let sleeping lions lie, so I will create another virtual also with TPM & encryption and the desired size this time. But I would like to know, when a vHD is encrypted is it a good idea to change size? And why would the original work, but not the clone?

Hi there

@Brett Woodword

Anything with encryption is always a "Lottery" when messing around with it.
I've found the easiest way is simply to create a Macrium image from "Within the VM" , create a new VM (just add 2nd larger Virtual hard disk), restore and then delete the original. Note though if you get message on ist boot "I copied it or I moved it" choose I moved it otherwise the GUID will be different and Windows will probably need re-activation.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

@Brett Woodword

Anything with encryption is always a "Lottery" when messing around with it.
I've found the easiest way is simply to create a Macrium image from "Within the VM" , create a new VM (just add 2nd larger Virtual hard disk), restore and then delete the original. Note though if you get message on ist boot "I copied it or I moved it" choose I moved it otherwise the GUID will be different and Windows will probably need re-activation.

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

Good to know, thanks. I have used Macrium before on my physical, good software. Haven't used it in awhile though. I Macrium my original entire vmachine, correct? Then I restore only the C: partition to the new larger vmachine.