An interesing problem re-installing to the host system !

[VirtuallyVirtual]

Hi everyone

Firstly thanks to all the people who created Virtualbox - what a great piece of software !

My problem is as follows:-

Host system is running Windows 2000.
I installed Virtualbox version 1.5.6 successfully on my W: drive (on my second physical hard drive). I was successfully using Virtualbox until that second hard drive failed with a complete hard drive failure. I took the failed second hard drive out of my PC. I then tried to do an install of Virtualbox on drive C: (on my first physical hard drive). The install failed with message 'Invalid drive W:' (which is true lol) however this is before I can even specify that I want to place the new installation on drive C:. I have attempted to do an uninstall - but this also fails with the same message. At the moment (in fact in the foreseeable future) I cannot afford to go buy another new 2nd physical hard drive.

My questions are as follows:-

1/. How can I uninstall what must be in the registry specifying drive W: ?
2/. Failing being able to uniinstall the registry settings then how can I FORCE an install on my C: drive?

Any other ideas are welcomed, however they must cost zero in monetary terms.

Thanks in advance

VirtuallyVirtual

[JohnG]

> How can I uninstall what must be in the registry specifying drive W: ?

Use RegEdit, and search for the words "VirtualBox" and "innotek", and delete the associated entries.
Try this one first: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\innotek\VirtualBox

As per the standard Microsoft warning, mucking about in the Registry can be dangerous to the health of your system -- tread carefully.

[VirtuallyVirtual]

Hi JohnG

Thanks for your reply. Yes I have looked at the registry by searching for Innotex and Virtualbox. I must admit to being loath to messing around manually with the registry because of the fear of fouling it up. What I don't entirely undertand about the registry entries is that they appear to contain long strings of characters (GUIID ?) and how that GUIID is interrelated in the rest of the registry. I am fearful of leaving in problem enteries.
Ideally I'd like to be able to see the install (deinstall) source and amend that to overcome the problem. If that is proprietary then maybe I should put this 'bug' in the wish list to be fixed ?

VV

[VirtuallyVirtual]

I took the risk of doing the following:-

1/. Using regedit I saved all of the registry (in case of problems)

2/. Searched for anything 'W:' related.

3/. On finding W: related keys and or data I looked at them and if they appeared to be virtual box related I either deleted them or changed them to C:.

4/. Exited out of the regedit.

5/. Did an uninstall of virtualbox via the control panel. This time it appeared to work.

6/. Reinstalled to VirtualBox on my S: drive. This appeared to work.

7/. Fired up Virtualbox it then said that some of my media (i.e. past virtual machines that were destroyed due to original hard drive failure) were inaccessible. I choose 'ignore' to this message.

8/. Went to <file><preferences> and changed the default folders (amazingly they still referred to w: ! ).

9/. Created New Virtual PC on my E: drive.

10/. Fired it up and it works !

I hope this helps others who experience the same problems. Luckily for me, when searching for W: items there were not too many of them ! If I had originally installed it on my C: drive I might have not been so luck !).

VV

[JohnG]

> 10/. Fired it up and it works !

Glad you got it sorted out.


> I am fearful of leaving in problem enteries.
> Ideally I'd like to be able to see the install
> (deinstall) source and amend that to overcome
> the problem.

There are installation-tracker programs that can help you with this: they sit in the background, and monitor an install process, recording every folder created and every entry made to the Registry.

Here are some links:
http://www.snapfiles.com/shareware/syst ... llers.html
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/syste ... llers.html


John

[VirtuallyVirtual]

Thanks JohnG I'll check those out !