If I have a full backup of a virtual machine from e.g. 2 weeks ago, and I make several snapshots between then and now, then my drive crashes and I have to replace it; can I restore the full backup and apply the snapshots and get back to the VM state as of the most recent snapshot? In other words, can snapshots act as incremental backups?
On the one hand, I think not since a snapshot is a difference between the current state (not the past state) and an earlier snapshot. But the doc (1.10.1.2) says, "By restoring a snapshot, you go back (or forward) in time.", so maybe?
Can Snapshots go "forward" in time?
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mpack
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Re: Can Snapshots go "forward" in time?
No, you can't manually manipulate a snapshot chain in that way in VirtualBox: the controls are what you have already seen, and you'll have seen that dropping in snapshot files is not among them.
However.
If the new snapshot files are available then what you can do is copy the entire chain of VDIs to a folder and CLONE THE MOST RECENT SNAPSHOT using CloneVDI. If the latter doesn't give you an error then it will create a single merged clone VDI which has all the data from the entire chain. You can build a new VM around this.
However.
If the new snapshot files are available then what you can do is copy the entire chain of VDIs to a folder and CLONE THE MOST RECENT SNAPSHOT using CloneVDI. If the latter doesn't give you an error then it will create a single merged clone VDI which has all the data from the entire chain. You can build a new VM around this.