Unable to clone VHD drive - VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER

[DerekTheGeek]

Hi All,

I am trying to use VBoxManager.exe (version 2.2.2) to clone a VHD file I first created with Virtual PC 2007 and then mounted using VirtualBox v2.2.2 r46594. I created the VHD image using Virtual PC 2007 but then moved to VirtualBox because of the better feature set. I had no problem using the VHD file from VirtualBox and once I got Win2003 Server (the guest OS) running to where I wanted it, I attempted to clone the VHD image.

I used the following via command prompt ...

Code: Select all

VBoxManage clonehd --format VHD "Y:\Virtual Machines\Windows 2003 Server.vhd" "Y:\Virtual Machines\win2k3_base.vhd"

I got the following response ...

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox>VBoxManage clonehd --format VHD "Y:\Virtual
Machines\Windows 2003 Server.vhd" "Y:\Virtual Machines\win2k3_base.vhd"
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.2.2
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

0%...FAILED
Error: failed to clone hard disk. Error message: Could not create the clone hard
 disk 'Y:\Virtual Machines\win2k3_base.vhd' (VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER)

I am not sure what parameter it thinks is invalid. I am using WinXP as my host machine (my dev platform) and the "Y:" drive is an external USB hard disk that is powered, formatted as NTFS, and has over 156 GB of free space available. I am at a loss and I really want to continue using VirtualBox. Is there another way to clone a virtual disk image for use with VirtualBox? Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

[Perryg]

I have not been able to clone or export a VHD file either so I feel it must me a bug. Feel free to click bugtracker below my post and fill out a report. You will need to setup a new account with them the first time to be able to post.

[DavidS]

I experienced the identical problem with VirtualBox 2.2.2. The host is Vista x64 running on an Intel processor with hardware VT support. The guest is Windows XP x86. I cannot clone a VHD disk to a VHD or to a VDI.

[toby.h.ferguson]

You could do an export/import and get another virtual image that way - might not be exactlyh what you want (all snapshots are flattened, for example) but it might do ...

[mpack]

Is there some reason why you need to be wedded to the VHD format? If you don't need VHD then you can use my CloneVDI tool to clone it to a VDI file. The VDI should give noticeably better performance.

And incidentally, if you are sticking with VHD because you might one day want to go back to VPC then there is no need; ordinary disk imaging tools such as CloneZilla or Acronis can be used to recreate the image in VHD format if you should ever want to.