Deleting old snapshots

[KevinM1]

Dumb question: I'd like to delete several old snapshots because, well, I don't need them any longer and they're simply wasting space on my laptop. Since all of my snapshots are sequential, am I in any danger of messing up my current VM state if I delete snapshots that the current state is derived from? In other words, given this sequence of snapshots as shown in my attached screenshot, would my current saved state be potentially messed up if I deleted the snapshots that were taken in January?

[socratis]

Please edit your message and attach the image here, locally. Also, if you're using a HiDPI setup, please shrink the image by at least 50%.

[KevinM1]

Done... please let me know if I need to resize it so it's a bit bigger. I didn't want it to be too big, but I may have shrunk it a bit too much.

[mpack]

I can still just about read it.

am I in any danger of messing up my current VM state if I delete snapshots ... ?

Quick answer, yes. All software is subject to bugs, plus a power cut at the wrong time could leave you with a permanently dead VM.

Best to make a backup of the VM folder before you start. I suggest that you get rid of all your snapshots, and in future rely purely on backups for the purpose of reverting to earlier VM states. The procedure is robust and it minimizes disk space used on the host. Sure it costs a little more time, so go get a coffee while the backup runs.

[socratis]

I didn't want it to be too big, but I may have shrunk it a bit too much.

Well, it could be, but let's not start splitting hair. As long as you're below the 128 KB limit, you're fine.

Yes, you can delete all the intermediate snapshots. I have never had an issue, but others have reported issues, so you might want to take a backup first.

Another option would be to Clone the current state to a new VM.

[Axter]

I'm using VirtualBox version 7.0, I haven't had any problems deleting intermediate snapshots.

If you have to delete 5 or more snapshots, this can take a long time using the GUI. For my VM's it was taking between 10-12 minutes for each snapshot deletion, and because the GUI doesn't give users the option to delete multiple snapshots at the same time, you can easily waste an hour deleting 5 snapshots.

To delete multiple snapshots unattended, I used the below script.

Code: Select all

@echo off
:: Description: This script deletes multiple VirtualBox snapshots unattended
:: Rename the following two lines to the correct VM name and executable path.
set VM_NAME="Win10ProWrk64TorrentTest"
set VBoxManageCMD="C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe"

for /F "tokens=* delims=" %%a in (SnapshotsList.txt) DO  (
    Echo Deletting snapshot %%a from VM %VM_NAME%
    %VBoxManageCMD% snapshot %VM_NAME% delete %%a
    Echo *********************************************
)

This script uses a text file named SnapshotsList.txt which list the names of the snapshots to be deleted.
Example:

Code: Select all

"qBitTorrent Installed"
"Increased Resolution"
"Updated VM software"
"Installed DiskGenius"
"qTorrent option changes"
"Before removing DiskGenius"

The SnapshotsList.txt file can easily be created using the following command line:

Code: Select all

"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" snapshot "MyVmNameHere" list --machinereadable >SnapshotsList.txt

Just edit the file to only include the SnapshotName's that are to be deleted.

If you try this, remember to use double quotes for the snapshot names and for the VM name.