Could not find an open hard disk with UUID

[ffan]

Hi,

I copies a virtualbox vm to an external hard drive. I figured that should not affect the original copy in my laptop's internal hard drive. However, after reboot the laptop, I can't open it anymore. How do I fix this problem? Thanks. - ffan

Could not find an open hard disk with UUID {0f227e78-c2ea-4c9e-9076-1a609cd308d7}.

Result Code:
VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80BB0001)
Component:
VirtualBoxWrap
Interface:
IVirtualBox {0169423f-46b4-cde9-91af-1e9d5b6cd945}

[scottgus1]

Are you sure you didn't "move" instead of "copy"?

[ffan]

Yes, I did a copy.
- ffan

[scottgus1]

Did you try to un-register anything from Virtualbox before doing the copy? Or rename a file?
Are you using snapshots?

[ffan]

No. I just copied the whole VM folder inside VirtualBox VMs to an external hard drive.

[scottgus1]

If the guest was shut down, simply doing a guest-folder copy would not cause any troubles with the original guest. Folder-copying a shut-down guest is actually the recommended backup method.

Was the guest shut down before you started the copy?

[ffan]

Yes.

[ffan]

After it completed the copying, I changed to the new one in the external drive and boot it up to make sure the copied one works. Yes, that one works. Now, it is the original copy doesn't work. - ffan

[scottgus1]

I changed to the new one in the external drive and boot it up to make sure the copied one works. Yes, that one works.

The hard drive files have internal identification codes called UUIDs that Virtualbox uses to keep track of the drives. A file-copied drive file will have the same UUID as the original file. You would not be able to attach both drive files to Virtualbox because VB needs to have unique UUIDs for each drive file. An error would appear if you tried to attach a drive, even with a different file name, but with the same UUID as another drive.

To check the copied drive you would have had to un-register (Release and Remove) the original drive file from the Virtual Media Manager, and then point your guest at the new drive file. You just need to unregister the copied drive and register the original again.

BTW, a simple file-compare in a command window can confirm that the copy was good.