Tried to load vbox file on new install, now can't recover 2 years old VM with VERY important data

[sigh]

Hello,

As the subject states.

I bought a new SSD, started to install everything, then I installed virtualbox and I tried to add the v.box file. Thankfully made a backup of it first, since after adding it, it threw some errors and overwrote the file, removing the encryption keys...

Unfortunately, after manually trying to fix the file by copying the content of backed up vbox, it's not working. it won't change the drive's state to encrypted and when I try to start it, either drops an node path error (paths are okay) or loads the VM, but states "no bootable medium found".

I have no idea where I went wrong, I have the keys, I know the password, I have the vdi files but I can't make it work because it always drops some error. I even tried to relocate the files and giving a new path in the xml, results are the same.

I been using this VM DAILY in the past ~2 years with pretty important and private information that had no backup. If there are any ways to fix it, or to just access the files in the .vdi (as I said, I have the key-pair and I know the PW) tell me.

[sigh]

Ah, and manually turning encryption on, starts encrypting the already encrypted volume, for some reason.

(windows 7 32 bit)

[socratis]

No backup of the data (of the encrypted data). Move to a new PC. Hmm...

If you have a backup of the old system, ZIP and post that ".vbox" file for starters. We'll need to see what was there and what you have available. If your VM was using the defaults, post a listing of its directories, including the sub-directories.

[sigh]

I made backup of the .vbox file and I left the .vdi files untouched. it's not a new PC, it's a new SSD in the same PC. The .vdis are on different hard drives. I don't see why I would have need to make a backup of those too, I also left my previous main install untouched (120gb SSD). Unfortunately, after trying to make it work in my 500gb SSD, when I returned to the old system I couldn't do anything..

At this point, this happens if I use the backup, previously working configuration, on the OLD system (where it used to work). I click on the .vbox file, then select the drives and add all 3 of them. then when I try to run it, this happens:

The path of a new node contained slashes or was empty. (VERR_CFGM_INVALID_NODE_PATH).
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Komponens: ConsoleWrap
Interfész: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

I attached the file.

I wouldn't mind creating a new system, I just need my files.. But since I got the key and I know the password, I guess it shouldn't be impossible..

[sigh]

update:

I spotted there was a missing word in

Code: Select all

HardDisk uuid="{0cdc6b69-39da-4f22-956d-f8df88181545}" location="G:/win7.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
          <Property name="CRYPT/KeyId" value="win7"/>
          <Property name="CRYPT/KeyStore" value="removed because its long"/>
        </HardDisk>

"CRYPT" was missing from /KeyId

So now, if I try to boot win7.vdi, it asks for password, I enter and it accepts, but returns with "No bootable medium found! System Halted."

[andyp73]

Not sure whether this is significant:

HardDisk uuid="{0cdc6b69-39da-4f22-956d-f8df88181545}" location="G:/win7.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">

In the image in the previous post the drives containing win7.vdi are showing as E: and F:\. I would have expected the media manager to complain about missing files instead though!

-Andy.

[sigh]

It's a little bit confusing, but I think when I wrote that post I was writing it from my old system (120GB SSD) and now I'm posting it from the new (500GB SSD) where drive letters are different (and so I corrected them).
It is not complaining about missing files, path is correct.

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage showmediuminfo G:\win7.vdi
UUID:           0cdc6b69-39da-4f22-956d-f8df88181545
Parent UUID:    base
State:          created
Type:           normal (base)
Location:       G:\win7.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Format variant: dynamic default
Capacity:       102400 MBytes
Size on disk:   102318 MBytes
Encryption:     enabled
Cipher:         AES-XTS256-PLAIN64
Password ID:    win7
Property:       CRYPT/KeyId=win7
Property:       CRYPT/KeyStore=U0NORQABQUVTLVhUUzI1Ni1QTEFJTjY0AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABQQktERjItU0hB
MjU2AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAAAACYJKlfKKYm7B/VXhY7ZG3uNWQLNe8Q
ksYnRxf9SxjLLyAAAAAHTOyTgEYKN2O65SZKgpLCqkc0KjtLGrQMYXzWoWig9CBO
AAAq+pAa+IgNDfwIqu5c8A/WUrwk1b/+hKgRyzL7HUVTnkCcAABAAAAAIo8a/wiA
/Qe7aNAan8ZIMd82GShjD8tNxfF6yeG50M5aoArPTQpXURhQK4ty5eq1tj1mPdwU
PpcdGK8O685gaQ==
In use by VMs:  win7 (UUID: 1857b49b-c427-4dcd-81cf-590cba2138e1)

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage checkmediumpwd "G:\win7.vdi" -
Enter password:
The given password is correct

cantposturlamazing.png (90.75 KiB) Viewed 2461 times

[andyp73]

The VBox.log file from the guest would be useful but it looks as though when it has tried the .vdi file it hasn't found any partitions within it (or at the least no bootable ones).

-Andy.

[sigh]

Code: Select all

00:00:06.348552 VM: Raising runtime error 'DrvVD_DEKMISSING' (fFlags=0x6)
00:00:06.348571 AHCI#0P0: Read at offset 0 (512 bytes left) returned rc=VERR_VD_DEK_MISSING
00:00:06.348604 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'SUSPENDING'
00:00:06.349278 AIOMgr: Async flushes not supported
00:00:06.350625 GUI: UIMediumEnumerator: Medium-enumeration finished!
00:00:06.386088 AIOMgr: Endpoint for file 'G:\win7.vdi' (flags 000c0781) created successfully
00:00:06.433209 PDMR3Suspend: 84 581 810 ns run time
00:00:06.433229 Changing the VM state from 'SUSPENDING' to 'SUSPENDED'
00:00:06.433244 Console: Machine state changed to 'Paused'
00:00:06.433449 Console: VM runtime error: fatal=false, errorID=DrvVD_DEKMISSING message="VD: The DEK for this disk is missing"
00:00:09.813816 Changing the VM state from 'SUSPENDED' to 'RESUMING'
00:00:09.814069 AIOMgr: Endpoint for file 'G:\win7.vdi' (flags 000c0723) created successfully
00:00:09.816863 Changing the VM state from 'RESUMING' to 'RUNNING'
00:00:09.816889 Console: Machine state changed to 'Running'
00:00:09.817312 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: Boot from Hard Disk 0 failed
00:00:09.817833 VMMDev: Guest Log: No bootable medium found! System halted.

I suppose this is the interesting part. I googled and will try to reinstall VB and the ext pack now.

e: didn't work.

[sigh]

Anyone?

[andyp73]

This is getting deep into the internals of VirtualBox and how the disk encryption works and the number of folks who understand it fully can probably be counted on the fingers of one finger!

I have had a quick chat with the devs and the VERR_VD_DEK_MISSING is a message from the guest saying that it needs the data encryption key and what causes the VirtualBox front end to prompt you to enter the password. If the KeyStore content is mixed up then you may see the problems with no bootable media being shown.

The .vbox file suggests that there should be two disks but the VBox.log file only has one disk configured and so it may be that you got the KeyStore information for the wrong disk.

The recommendation is to boot the VM with a Linux live CD iso and look at the disk contents, partition table, etc. The GParted live CD might not be a bad place to start as it will show you whether the partitions for the guest look like they should and whether any of them are actually tagged as bootable.

-Andy.