Page 1 of 1

Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 24. Apr 2010, 13:47
by dean_goddard
After upgrading to Vbox 3.1.6 r59338 on my Vista host, my existing virtual Xp machine (VM) works fine. I tried copying the VM (rather the .vdi file) like I use to with VMWare, but Vbox gets its knickers in a knot whereas VMWare recogonises the changed location and asks if you want to re-assign a new identify to the moved VDI.

So I set about creating a new XP VM but I'm unable to create a new .vdi due to the following "VirtualBox - Error": (Can we please allow dialog text to be selected for copy/paste or have a save/copy to clipboard button or something so I don't have to type it all in by hand?)
Failed to create hard disk storage BMT-WEST-1.vmi

Runtime error: -38 (Access denied.)

D:\tinderbox\win3.1\src\VBox\Main\VirtualBoxImpl.cpp[3225]
(VirtualBox::Settings).

\/ Details
Result code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Medium
Interface: IMedium {aa8167ba-df72-4738-b740-9b84377ba9f1}

The D:\ to where the vdi was to be created has full access. C:\ is restricted particularly "c:\Program Files".
All my apps are installed on "D:\Program Files". There is no D:\tinderbox\... folder, and only the first 121 KB of
the vdi is ever created.

Attached is a screenshot copy of the error.

Any ideas???

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 26. Apr 2010, 10:46
by mpack
The "d:\Tinderbox" folder reference looks like part of a trace statement indicating the error position in the source code, i.e. d:\Tinderbox was a folder on the PC where the sources were compiled.

The screenshot of the error looks straightforward: it complains of an existing VDI file of that name. This is a very specific error message, not likely to be wrong. You should check. It is possible that the existing file was only partially created due to some earlier problem, such as lack of space, FAT32 drive etc.

You can't just copy VDI files, each each one contains an embedded signature value which must be unique else they can't be registered. Search this site for VDI and UUID.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 28. Apr 2010, 14:54
by dean_goddard
Fair call, my bad. That error obviously is related to a second attempt. So I have just tried again, used a different VDI name, kept the default location and I'm still unable to create a second hard disk / VM. The first attachment is the correct error regarding my issue... This error is very reproducible for me.

I only have two guesses as to what it might be:
1. If "tinderbox" is a stack trace, then I'm guessing the issue is with saving the new settings rather actually creating the new vdi. As you can see in the second attachment, a 116 KB vdi file was created (see second attachment) which indicates that permission is not an issue. D:\ drive is an NTFS volume with 78 GB free space, and I have FULL ADMIN access to it.

2. Or VBox is calculating the total storage requirements and has determined a short fall and died ungraciously - let me explain. My current working XP VM resides on a dynamically expanding VDI with a maximum size of 100 GB, it currently only consumes 20GB. If this VDI was to theorectically expand to full capacity, it would consue all of D:\ drive, leaving no room for any new expandable VDI. Perhaps VBox is attempting to cacluate the theoretical limits of the VM's and coming up with a negative?

I had originally intended to put the second VM on an external USB/SATA drive, however I'm using the local d:\ drive to keep it simple.

I want to confirm that I'm not doing anything stupid, before I claim and report this as a bug.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 28. Apr 2010, 17:48
by mpack
dean_goddard wrote:Perhaps VBox is attempting to cacluate the theoretical limits of the VM's and coming up with a negative?
As far as I know, VBox does not work that way. AFAIK it will happily create a dynamic VDI file with a max size larger than that of the host drive: protection would come from a simulated write error when the host runs out of space.

On your problem, you have an "access denied" error, though I don't understand why the file is partially created. Is this a local drive (not networked), using NTFS filesystem? I think it's unlikely I'll be able to diagnose this one remotely.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 29. Apr 2010, 13:23
by dean_goddard
(Sorry for the time delay - I'm in Sydney Australia and this is getting close to my bed time...zzzzzzzz)

Yep local, non-removable, non-networked NTFS and I'm logged in as Administrator (I restrict the wife on the other login, and restrict even myself from c:\Program Files - I have to manually enable permissions to this folder should some application insist on being installed on C: drive.)

Anything I can do to help diagnose, like re-install an earlier version and see what happens???

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 29. Apr 2010, 15:00
by mpack
dean_goddard wrote:Anything I can do to help diagnose, ... ???
Not that I can think of. I don't bother with logins or user account protections on my own PC, since no-one else has access. I also don't use a Vista or Win7 host, hence don't know what additional issues that adds. Meaning that I'm not the best person to answer questions about permission problems on Vista.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 3. May 2010, 05:59
by Techno.Scavenger
It really looks like you have permission issues....

Can you try test this on another machine?

If not possible, your new virtual drive is set to dynamically expand, right? And you do have enough disk space on that partition? Do you have quota configured on a folder?

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 4. May 2010, 20:54
by HateRegistering
I had this exact problem when i was trying to create a new Virtual HD and solved it by deleting the VirtualBox XML file (located at C:\Users\$USERNAME\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml on a Win7 machine) then restarting VirtualBox.

There is also another person having the same issue here: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 39&start=0

Someone should file a bug (corrupted VirtualBox XML file).

Note that this happened only after I upgraded to the latest virtual box (3.1.6), and also note that my existing virtual machines worked fine before upgrading just as the original poster remarked.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 5. May 2010, 08:30
by dean_goddard
Thanking you "HateRegistering".

I've raised a new defect ticket (#6644 ) and attached is a copy of my VirtualBox.xml for anyones reference.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 5. May 2010, 10:04
by mpack
Have you been editing the xml manually? I find it odd that it contains references to "Users\Director\.VirtualBox" and "Users\Director\VirtualBox" - the first is standard, the second looks suspicously like a typo.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 5. May 2010, 13:24
by dean_goddard
To be honest I wished I had, so I know to blame myself. But nope. I didn't touch it. I have looked at it but left it alone.

What you can see in the xml though, is that I have attempted to move my c:\Users\director folder to d:\ drive (as c: is very small) but Windows gets very twichie about this, so half my crap is on c: and the other half on d: - this was done about 18 months ago - before I install VBox and my first VM which is perfectly fine to this day. It was only after the recent VBox upgrade, I've since tried to create a second VM but can't

The only "dodgie" thing I can lay claim to was copying my original vdi to a new location, in order to speed up a new VM installation process and service packing it etc. However I don't believe this caused the problem, as the VirtualBox.xml file hasn't been updated in a while. Attached is a screen shot showing the file modified/created dates of the virtualbox.xml file.

What I have noticed since the upgrade is that my original vdi location was D:\Users\Director\VirtualBox, but my new vdi location is D:\Users\Director\.VirtualBox\HardDisks. So it would indicate to me, that the latest change is a more than a bug fix.

Now that I have presented a copy of all the evidence, I'm going to move my virtualbox.xml file out of the way, and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Re: Failure to create hard disk storage VBox Error

Posted: 5. May 2010, 16:16
by dean_goddard
It turns out that the attached VirtualBox.xml file and subsequent screen shots was not the current file being used. My current %UserProfile% is indeed c:\users\director not the d:\ drive, yet I changed the default folder settings with VBox to d: drive. After deleting the xml file, I was able to create a new vdi, but was unable to hack the xml succesfully to attach my original machine and hard disk. It was upon resetting back the original correct xml file and hacking it so my restore point vdi now lives on an external USB/SATA drive that I found the root cause!

Ultimate cause: The original VirtualBox.xml file had the hidden attribute set thereby all the "permissions" releated issues. I am quite certain I never set this flag manually and the fact two other people have had similar issues, I'm guessing somehow VBox has done this??? This is the first time I've mucked about with the xml file. Being the admin of this pc, I show hidden files and folders and therefore didn't realise this file was indeed hidden.

I'm concerned that while deleting the file forcing VBox to re-create it as an alternate fix, VBox unable to reattach an existing machine and hard disk, and the new xml has a slightly different heading tags ie: the upgrade didn't upgrade the xml file.

Anyways I'm happy now and everything is running fine - I now have two VM's. I think I might even be able to hack a way to copy a pre-built vdi but I'll do that another day at my own risk.

Thanks everyone and good night. :)