Creating Virtual Hard Disks on Other Drives

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Iota
Posts: 2
Joined: 10. Apr 2021, 07:32

Creating Virtual Hard Disks on Other Drives

Post by Iota »

Hey all, I'm very new to using VMs, so sorry is this one is obvious.
Recently I was attempting to create a VM for Ubuntu on one of my drives, but realized that the disk was too full for me to allocate the amount of memory I needed for a virtual hard disk.
As a workaround, I tried creating the vdi on a separate drive, but was met with the following message:
You don't have permission to save in this location.
Contact the administrator to obtain permission.

Would you like to save in the [user] folder instead?


I am registered as an admin on my computer, so I'm unsure why I was given this prompt.
Why is this, and is it possible to create a virtual hard disk on a drive other than the one in which the vm is installed?

Thanks in advance.
BillG
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Posts: 5102
Joined: 19. Sep 2009, 04:44
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 10,7 and earlier
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Creating Virtual Hard Disks on Other Drives

Post by BillG »

Where did you try yo create the new .vdi file? I have no problem creating a new .vdi on my HDD (which I use to back up my vms which run on an SSD).

Windows permissions are pretty confusing. Is there anything special about this drive?
Newvdi.PNG
Bill
Iota
Posts: 2
Joined: 10. Apr 2021, 07:32

Re: Creating Virtual Hard Disks on Other Drives

Post by Iota »

Not that I'm aware of. Its just a regular HDD that's formatted as a basic data partition. VirtualBox is installed on an SSD but I doubt that's an issue since it seems to work for you.

I tried creating the actual VM on the disk in addition to the VDI as well, but ran into a similar issue. Windows just wont grant me the correct perms to create VM files on other drives it seems.
I posted here because I thought it might be a common issue, but since its a perms problem its probably specific to something with my user settings.

Another thing I might try is using admin to manually override windows' permissions, but I worry about placing files where windows clearly doesn't want me to.
I'll poke around a bit more and update this thread if I find anything weird.
scottgus1
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
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Re: Creating Virtual Hard Disks on Other Drives

Post by scottgus1 »

Iota wrote:is it possible to create a virtual hard disk on a drive other than the one in which the vm is installed?
Absolutely. I have done this myself. If host disk's space or bandwidth (more than 2 modern OS's can swamp a platter drive in my experience), putting the whole VM or having a second virtual drive on another host drive might be needed.

Permissions for certain locations on a drive are clamped down, as BillG mentions. The root of a drive is special, as well as certain folders like Program Files. Making your own new folder in the root of the drive or another location should allow you to make/move the VM in your new folder.
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