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We have a Windows 7 virtual machine on VMware Workstation 11. The VM is now encrypted (using Workstation) but wasn’t always. The VM has confidential information on it and as we no longer need it, we would like to securely delete the full VM. What is the safest way to securely delete the whole VM? Would it be to secure delete all files in the VM folder?

schroeder
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ArnoldS
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    Would a VM be different to cleaning any other file? Might be worth checking out answers to questions such as http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/8322/secure-cleaning-of-deleted-files and http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/7069/how-can-files-be-deleted-in-a-hipaa-compliant-way/7072#7072 – Tim Malone May 02 '16 at 01:01
  • As Tim said, erase your VM folder as you would any other. Afterwards, if you have a utility that will "erase free space" or basically overwrite your HDD with 0's or 1's and 0's, you'll be golden my friend. – Henry F May 02 '16 at 04:02

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VMSphere Documentation Centers recommends zero-ing out the entire contents of the file before deleting. While I understand you are running, VM Workstation 11 the same logic would apply. It is recommended that you boot the VMFS from CDROM/ISO that contains a program to wipe a hard disk (e.g. DBAN, etc.), wipe the entire contents then delete the .vmdk.

For further assurance, you could follow the directions of @Tim and @John. You could use a program like CsCleaner, sdelete from MS SysInternals, or other file deletion tools to delete the .vmdk. However, if you will continue to use the physical hdd, it is important that you use full disk encryption until the time comes to decommission the physical drive, when you securely wipe & destroy it.

eTo-san
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