Inaccessible VM, <VM-name>.vbox Missing

[DW55]

Using version 5.1.22 with Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.22-115126.vbox-extpack on a 64x Win10 Pro physical machine.

In VirtualBox Manager, the word, "Inaccessible" was showing under the name of the VM. When I tried to start the VM, I saw a message saying "VM10.vbox file is missing" (Note: the name of the VM is "VM10). I inspected the C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 folder on my physical machine, and I saw that VM10.vbox was not there, but a file called VM10.vbox.prev was there. I made a copy of VM10.vbox.prev and I renamed it VM10.vbox and I moved the renamed file into the C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 folder. Now, when I start the VM, I see a black screen with the words, "FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted.

I have a second VM defined on this machine which is running fine.

I tried running the VirtualBox-5.1.22-115126-Win.exe installer, and I clicked Repair. Installation goes to completion and I reboot my desktop PC. VM10 still gives the FATAL error. VM10 has no clones or snapshots.

Please tell me how to create a VM10.vbox file that will allow me to restore the missing VM.

Thank you,

DM

[mpack]

There would have been another file in the folder called xxxxx.vbox-tmp, which was actually the correct one to use. You only revert to the older .vbox-prev as a last resort.

But it's too late to use the .tmp file now, because a new one is created on every run.

"Could not read from boot medium" is an unrelated guest issue, I won't comment (much) on that until adequate diagnostics are provided. Briefly, It would indicate that you had done something to the storage section of the VM during the lost session.

I have deleted the irrelevant hardening log. Your problem clearly has nothing to do with hardening. What we do need to see is a VM log: with the VM fully shut down, right click it in GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

It would help if you included the .vbox file in the zip, and post a screenshot showing the files in the VM folder, and the snapshots subfolder.

[DW55]

Hi mpack

Thank you for your quick reply.

What we do need to see is a VM log: with the VM fully shut down, right click it in GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (ONLY) to a zip file.

"Show Log..." is grayed out.

Here is the error message I see when I try to start the VM now:

Code: Select all

Runtime error opening 'C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10\VM10.vbox' for reading: -102(File not found.).
F:\tinderbox\win-5.1\src\VBox\Main\src-server\MachineImpl.cpp[745] (long __cdecl Machine::i_registeredInit(void)).
Result Code: 
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: 
MachineWrap
Interface: 
IMachine {b2547866-a0a1-4391-8b86-6952d82efaa0}

It would help if you included the .vbox file in the zip,

There is no .vbox file in the C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 folder. Here's a directory listing:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\RAS>dir C:\Users\RAS\"VirtualBox VMs\VM10"
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 12F9-C4BD

 Directory of C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10

07/06/2017  09:18 PM    <DIR>          .
07/06/2017  09:18 PM    <DIR>          ..
07/07/2017  02:18 AM    <DIR>          Logs
07/06/2017  09:06 PM             2,127 VM10.vbox-prev
07/28/2016  05:08 AM    19,228,786,688 VM10.vdi
               2 File(s) 19,228,788,815 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  51,259,715,584 bytes free

Here is a listing of the Snapshots folder:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\RAS>dir D:\"Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\Snapshots"
 Volume in drive D is D Drive 1 TB
 Volume Serial Number is A667-EFC7

 Directory of D:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\Snapshots

05/16/2017  01:15 AM    <DIR>          .
05/16/2017  01:15 AM    <DIR>          ..
05/16/2017  01:15 AM    17,811,111,936 {2b9ebafd-016d-4a6f-825f-f1fc043970a5}.vdi
05/15/2017  02:48 AM    76,963,381,248 {bee90894-d4b2-4768-aa64-e05782e40d3f}.vdi
05/24/2017  03:43 AM    23,821,549,568 {fe184408-4f6b-44d9-8ec2-4d7ecfb1b31d}.vdi
               3 File(s) 118,596,042,752 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  305,759,576,064 bytes free

The sick VM has no snapshots. The second VM which is working fine has two snapshots.

HTH,

DW

[mpack]

Your first post said that you had renamed the ".vbox-prev" file to ".vbox". Well, I see the ".vbox-prev" file, but I don't see any ".vbox". Obviouly the rename step is not optional, unless you have a another .vbox file backup elsewhere.

[mpack]

Another thing I just noticed... what on earth have you done to the folder structure??

You have snapshots in "D:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\Snapshots"... Why do you have a "Program Files" folder on what is presumably a data drive? Or given that this is a code location, why do you have a VM specific data folder (..\Snapshots) in a global "Program Files" folder location?

This looks like someone just took a big paintbrush and blended all the folders together with no recognition of their function. It's not surprising that it doesn't work.

[DW55]

Hi mpack,

Well, I see the ".vbox-prev" file, but I don't see any ".vbox".

That's correct. I moved .vbox-prev to a temporary folder and renamed it .vbox. Then I moved the renamed file back to the C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 folder. The renamed file didn't work as described in my first post. That's when I got the message, "FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted". Because it didn't work, I deleted the renamed file. That's why you don't see any .vbox file in the folder now.

Why do you have a "Program Files" folder on what is presumably a data drive?

I've been set up this way for years without any problems. My C drive is a small SSD (128GB). My D drive is a 1TB HDD. I build the VMs on the D drive because each one (along with its snapshots) takes up too much space. The problem is not with my file structure. All would have continued to run well except for the fact that VM10.vbox was unintentionally deleted.

My second VM is working fine. See here:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\RAS>dir C:\"Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 Clone\"
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 12F9-C4BD

 Directory of C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 Clone

12/31/2016  05:29 AM    <DIR>          .
12/31/2016  05:29 AM    <DIR>          ..
12/31/2016  05:29 AM    <DIR>          Logs
12/31/2016  05:29 AM             7,169 VM10 Clone.vbox
12/30/2016  05:27 PM             7,169 VM10 Clone.vbox-prev
               2 File(s)         14,338 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  51,773,612,032 bytes free

See also:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\RAS>dir D:\"VirtualMachine\VM10 Clone"
 Volume in drive D is D Drive 1 TB
 Volume Serial Number is A667-EFC7

 Directory of D:\VirtualMachine\VM10 Clone

07/08/2017  05:37 AM    <DIR>          .
07/08/2017  05:37 AM    <DIR>          ..
07/08/2017  01:19 AM    <DIR>          Logs
07/04/2017  02:30 AM    <DIR>          Snapshots
07/08/2017  01:19 AM            21,076 VM10 Clone.vbox
07/07/2017  05:05 AM            21,076 VM10 Clone.vbox-prev
07/08/2017  05:37 AM            21,091 VM10 Clone.vbox-tmp
01/16/2017  03:03 PM    73,420,242,944 VM10 Clone.vdi
               4 File(s) 73,420,306,187 bytes
               4 Dir(s)  305,428,692,992 bytes free

And also here:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\RAS>dir D:\"Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\"
 Volume in drive D is D Drive 1 TB
 Volume Serial Number is A667-EFC7

 Directory of D:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox

07/06/2017  09:08 PM    <DIR>          .
07/06/2017  09:08 PM    <DIR>          ..
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           298,160 DbgPlugInDiggers.dll
07/06/2017  09:08 PM    <DIR>          doc
05/04/2017  02:47 AM    <DIR>          drivers
07/06/2017  08:20 PM    <DIR>          ExtensionPacks
07/28/2016  05:02 AM    <DIR>          Guest Additions
10/17/2016  11:37 AM            85,854 License_en_US.rtf
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           627,568 msvcp100.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           852,176 msvcr100.dll
07/06/2017  09:08 PM    <DIR>          nls
07/06/2017  09:08 PM    <DIR>          platforms
04/28/2017  05:35 PM         5,724,880 Qt5CoreVBox.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM         6,325,448 Qt5GuiVBox.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           346,504 Qt5OpenGLVBox.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           337,616 Qt5PrintSupportVBox.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM         5,720,664 Qt5WidgetsVBox.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           250,400 Qt5WinExtrasVBox.dll
10/17/2016  03:45 AM    <DIR>          sdk
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           316,960 SDL.dll
05/16/2017  01:15 AM    <DIR>          Snapshots
04/28/2017  05:36 PM         2,946,680 vbox-img.exe
04/28/2017  05:35 PM            25,008 VBoxAuth.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            33,320 VBoxAuthSimple.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           153,216 VBoxBalloonCtrl.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            87,808 VBoxBugReport.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         3,144,000 VBoxC.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            36,392 VBoxCAPI.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           167,792 VBoxDbg.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         3,494,704 VBoxDD.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           381,912 VBoxDD2.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            18,848 VBoxDD2R0.r0
04/28/2017  05:36 PM            18,208 VBoxDD2RC.rc
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           153,520 VBoxDDR0.r0
04/28/2017  05:36 PM           129,696 VBoxDDRC.rc
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           365,744 VBoxDDU.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            50,976 VBoxDragAndDropSvc.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            27,056 VBoxDTrace.exe
04/28/2017  05:06 PM         2,097,152 VBoxEFI32.fd
04/28/2017  05:07 PM         2,097,152 VBoxEFI64.fd
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            64,464 VBoxExtPackHelperApp.exe
04/28/2017  05:35 PM        59,445,248 VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            44,192 VBoxGuestControlSvc.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            49,888 VBoxGuestPropSvc.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           336,080 VBoxHeadless.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,063,896 VBoxHeadless.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            33,832 VBoxHostChannel.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,064,976 VBoxManage.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           391,192 VBoxNetDHCP.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,063,896 VBoxNetDHCP.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           493,496 VBoxNetNAT.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,063,896 VBoxNetNAT.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           189,144 VBoxOGLhostcrutil.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           108,072 VBoxOGLhosterrorspu.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           127,256 VBoxOGLrenderspu.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           749,688 VBoxProxyStub.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           692,080 VBoxREM.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM           952,704 VBoxRes.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         5,493,680 VBoxRT.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           390,104 VBoxSDL.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,064,408 VBoxSDL.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            43,176 VBoxSharedClipboard.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,055,520 VBoxSharedCrOpenGL.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM            55,072 VBoxSharedFolders.dll
04/28/2017  05:35 PM            20,776 VBoxSupLib.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         4,940,992 VBoxSVC.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           162,672 VBoxTestOGL.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         2,884,160 VBoxVMM.dll
04/28/2017  05:39 PM        15,567,856 VBoxWebSrv.exe
04/28/2017  05:07 PM         3,009,397 VirtualBox.chm
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         9,472,528 VirtualBox.dll
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,064,920 VirtualBox.exe
04/28/2017  05:37 PM         1,211,760 VMMR0.r0
04/28/2017  05:37 PM           881,864 VMMRC.rc
07/06/2017  09:08 PM    <DIR>          x86
              64 File(s)    151,568,299 bytes
              11 Dir(s)  305,428,692,992 bytes free

Note that the second VM is called "VM10 Clone", but it's not actually a clone of the lost VM. I merely gave it that name when I built it from scratch.

My question remains: Is there any way to recover the lost VM?

Thank you,

DM

[DW55]

Any further thoughts about recovering my lost VM?

Thank you,

DW

[mpack]

Not from me, as I think the above already says it all. If you are not willing to fix identified problems then I see no point to this discussion. And with a filesystem this far goofed up nobody who isn't there can easily find out what's gone wrong anyway.

Personally I would copy off all the VMs, burn what's left (complete uninstall, delete all related folders), do a standard VirtualBox install, copy back the VMs one at a time: being sure to create a standard VM folder structure for each VM, and then register each VM. Only then can we look closer at which VMs work and which do not.

[scottgus1]

It looks like you installed Virtualbox itself on the D drive. You don't need to do that to get your guests to be on the D drive. In fact, you can see that your guests still want to be on the C drive anyway. The best way to set up Virtualbox is with the program itself installed in the default location "C:\Program Files\Oracle\Virtualbox". Then you can set the "default machine folder" in the main Virtualbox window, File menu, Preferences, General, to the D drive or a folder thereon.

We might be able to get your VM10 guest going again. Please put these files in a zip file and post the zip here on the forum using Upload Attachment:

C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 Clone\VM10 Clone.vbox
C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10\VM10.vbox-prev
C:\Users\RAS\.Virtualbox\VirtualBox.xml <-note the . in the .Virtualbox folder name
Make a shortcut that will open your main Virtualbox window on the desktop, then put the shortcut in the zip file too.

[DW55]

Hi scottgus1,

Here's a link to the files you requested:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B08qwF ... sp=sharing

The .ZIP archive contains the four files you requested. When you said, "Make a shortcut that will open your main Virtualbox window ..." I took that to mean a shortcut that will open VirtualBox Manager. That's the shortcut I am sending you.

Please note one change that may or may not be relevant. Since my last visit to this forum, I have created a new VM called "VM10_true_Clone" by using the Clone... menu item in VirtualBox Manager. It is, in fact, a clone made from my existing VM which is called "VM10 Clone". Both VMs (VM10 Clone and VM10_true_Clone) are working perfectly.

The original VM for which I am seeking help is still inaccessible. When I try to open it, I see the "VM10.vbox file is missing" message.

Thank you for your help.

DW

[scottgus1]

Good morning, DW!

Thanks for the info. I got the zip file. The shortcut appears to have morphed into the actual "Virtualbox.exe" application file instead of the shortcut itself. Maybe a Windows or Google Drive thing. Not a big problem. All I was looking for was where Virtualbox.exe lived. I do see from the files that Guest Additions ISO resides in "D:/Program Files/Oracle/Virtualbox" So you installed Virtualbox itself on the D drive.

You can see what I see if you open each of the other files I requested in Wordpad. You will notice that Virtualbox.xml is looking for three guests. VM10 Clone and VM10 true clone are on the D drive and VM10 is on the C drive. However there is no VM10.vbox file in the guest's folder on the C drive. Thus the "Inaccessible".

Now if you compare the VM10.vbox_prev file, and VM10 clone.vbox file you will see something weird. VM10 clone.vbox has a lot more stuff in it. The reason is that VM10.vbox_prev is toast. Necessary parts are missing. That's why you got the "FATAL" error message. The .vbox copy you made of this .vbox_prev has no info on any disks, in addition to missing other things. Virtualbox re-writes .vbox files on the fly when a guest is running, or at least when the guest shuts down. It saves the .vbox file as .vbox_prev and writes a new .vbox. Probably, Virtualbox ran short on time writing the .vbox file (maybe a host crash or Updates restart) or had a crash within itself, and failed to write the new copy of the .vbox file correctly. (It's a computer, it does happen...) Then a few attempts to start the guest caused the damaged .vbox file to become the .vbox_prev, which deleted the previous .vbox_prev, which lost all the good data therein, and left you with no .vbox and a fried .vbox_prev.

So what we're going to try is to manually write a new .vbox file for your VW10 guest. Subject to the usual considerations: YMMV, UAYOR, IANAL, all the other acronym'd quid pro quo's. You should make a complete backup of everything in your C:\Users\RAS\"VirtualBox VMs\VM10" folder, including the "VM10.vdi" file. Things could go cluster-cuss with this guest if I miss something, at which point you simply re-copy the backup back over the files on the C: drive folder and reset the mess. On the other hand the guest could come back just fine.

All of the below fix is under the assumption you did not have any snapshots for this guest. If you did, you will only have the base disk available to boot from. If you did have snapshots, then yo will have to wait for someone more snapshot-knowledgeable than me to help.

Reboot your host. Open the zip file and copy the VM10.vbox file therein to the C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10 folder. Then open the main Virtualbox window. The guest should be showing in the list, and should hopefully allow you to edit its settings. Open the guest's Storage settings. The guest may have the Guest Additions CD in it. You will have to add the main .vdi disk file. Right-click the SATA controller, and choose Add Hard Disk. Click "Choose Existing Disk". Browse to and select C:\Users\RAS\VirtualBox VMs\VM10\VM10.vdi, and click Open. Select the new disk under the SATA controller called VM10.vdi and set the SATA port to 0. Click OK to close the settings. Start the guest and hope for the best.

Here's the new .vbox file:

VM10.zip

(1.29 KiB) Downloaded 14 times

[scottgus1]

Post back and let us know what happened. If the guest boots, good. If it doesn't, don't thrash around trying to fix stuff on your own. More damage could be done. Just let us know any error messages that happened.

If the guest does boot we can help you get it onto the D drive if you want. Let us know.

[DW55]

Hi scottcus1,

Thank you for your lucid and comprehensive post.

Post back and let us know what happened.

VM10 is now accessible again. Thank you!

As predicted, you have recovered a 64x Windows 10 Pro version 1511 machine. So far, I have done nothing with it. I have not installed any of the apps that were in the original VM.

If the guest does boot we can help you get it onto the D drive if you want.

Yes, that is very important for me. I have very limited space on my SSD C: drive. My D and E drives are each lightly loaded 1TB HDDs.

If you did have snapshots, then yo will have to wait for someone more snapshot-knowledgeable than me to help.

I did have at least one snapshot on that VM (it may have been two). No snapshots are visible now. It would be great if there is any possibility of getting at least one of them back.

The guest may have the Guest Additions CD in it.

Yes, indeed. Guest Additions is present in Settings > Storage > SATA, but no CD of any kind is visible within the guest. Also, the menu bar which normally contains, "File Machine View Input Devices Help" is not visible unless I press Right-Ctrl + C. When I do that, the guest window is only about 3/4 of my monitor's screen. If I expand it by clicking the Maximize icon in upper right, the full monitor screen does get covered, but the guest window remains 3/4 size. If I toggle Right-Ctrl + C again, the guest fully covers the monitor screen, but the menu bar disappears.

To summarize:
I got my VM back. Thank you!
The VM really needs to move off the C drive and onto the D drive.
It would be great to get one of my snapshots back.
How to display the menu bar in full screen mode?

Many thanks,

DW

[scottgus1]

It would probably have been better to let me know you had snapshots before starting the guest. We will have to undo some stuff.

All of the below fix is under the assumption you did not have any snapshots for this guest. If you did, you will only have the base disk available to boot from. If you did have snapshots, then yo will have to wait for someone more snapshot-knowledgeable than me to help.

Each snapshot places a mask of new data over the other data stored in previous snapshots or in the base disk. Since you booted the base disk, some of the original data that has been unchanged since you took the snapshots may have now changed, so the base disk is now no longer compatible with the snapshots. When we attempt to get your snapshots going, we will be using the original base vdi disk file that you took a backup of before trying my edited .vbox file:

You should make a complete backup of everything in your C:\Users\RAS\"VirtualBox VMs\VM10" folder, including the "VM10.vdi" file.

Copy the VM10.vdi base disk in the C drive guest folder to a suitable backup location so you can at least start over fresh if necessary, then copy the backed up VM10.vdi base disk you made before trying the .vbox file back to the C drive guest folder. Don't boot the guest anymore yet.

Please post a directory listing of "D:/Program Files/Oracle/VirtualBox/Snapshots", along with any subfolders therein, like you did above, and we'll see what we can do.

[scottgus1]

Since the above I have tried to figure out exactly how snapshots are stored in the .vbox file. And it is a lot more complicated than I foresaw. I do not hold out much hope of manually generating a .vbox file with working snapshots.

Someone may come along who can figure out exactly how to make the snapshot-enabled .vbox for you, so keeping copies of the working .vbox, original base vdi and the snapshot disks in a backup might be a good idea, but I will not be able to get a full snapshotted guest going just by editing the .vbox file.

The only thing I see that we can do is clone the base disk and snapshots, if we can find them, to a single non-snapshotted disk file using Mpack's CloneVDI, then letting the guest use this new disk. You will have to lose your snapshot structure, but you may get your data back. The directory listing requested above will help.

After this we can work on moving your guest to the D drive and fixing the menu bar problem.