Hidden directory/file ...?

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soltaran
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Hidden directory/file ...?

Post by soltaran »

Host: Windows

I don't think the VB version comes into this query, but happy add later if necessary.

By chance, I had 'hidden files' turned on and was taken aback to spot a hidden directory (the directory name is in Linux hidden format too - .ptmp954D23) containing a 40G file called 'primary.img' .. suggesting it's an HDD image, and located in the directory specified as my storage location for VB VMs.

Now, AFAIK, I've not created it, so I'm wondering what it's likely to be and how it came into being .. it's creation date is April 2021 if that's any clue .. but I've been using VB for long before then.

I'd like to delete it as it's a hefty chunk of disk that apparently is doing nothing, but I'm reluctant to do so without some clue as to it's origin in case losing it screws up any of my VMs.

Any ideas?
scottgus1
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Re: Hidden directory/file ...?

Post by scottgus1 »

Virtualbox doesn't make .img files, as best I can remember. So it's probably from something else. I do recall that Mac OS files sometimes come as .img's, but that's hardly a conclusive list. :lol:

See if you can open it with an archive or zip extractor and see what's inside; perhaps 7-zip can open it on Windows hosts.

I'd wager that at least, move it to another random folder to see if anything blows up. Then copy and file-compare it to backup media for a year or two, and delete it off the host PC. and if nothing blows up later, then delete it off the backup as well.
soltaran
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Re: Hidden directory/file ...?

Post by soltaran »

That's what I thought, but decided to check. Whatever it was it's now gone .. 7z wasn't able to open it anyway .. said it was corrupt. Got 40G back though :)

Oh - and I'd already renamed both it and the directory to see what, if any, were the effects. Nothing apparently.
mpack
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Re: Hidden directory/file ...?

Post by mpack »

.img could be an image i.e. a picture (not likely if the size is 40G), but my bet would be that it's a raw backup image of a primary partition, say to use with a VMDK descriptor. But in that case you would have created the img yourself.

VirtualBox has no backup feature period, nor any feature that creates disk images except when manually requested.
soltaran
Posts: 13
Joined: 28. Nov 2011, 18:33
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Pretty much whatever I fancy!

Re: Hidden directory/file ...?

Post by soltaran »

And I wouldn't have created it as a dual (Win/Linux) hidden file!

Deleted it anyway,
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