Removing .iso Images References

[romosailor]

Dear all:

I have downloaded a couple of .iso images and mounted them to the virtual DVD drive to install software inside the VM.

Since those images occupied a lot of space, I have deleted them once I finished.

Since that moment, every time I opened VirtualBox I have a warning stating that I have file missing. I go to Virtual Media Manager and indeed I have a warning sign on the two .iso files I have removed.

My VMs still work fine, this is just an annoying message but I would like to fix it.

I am unable to remove those .iso files, as it seems you can only do that if the files are accessible. Since the files are gone (and I do not want to re-download them in the same place just to fix this) I am on a dead end.

Is there a safe / easy way to remove those .iso images references, without having to re-download them and put the in the same location, so that you can then use the VMM to remove them?

I have found the following similar posts, but not with the answer I am looking for. I cannot post the reference as I am a new user.
Thanks and regards.

[socratis]

Just click "Remove" in the media manager...
They don't have to physically be there.

[romosailor]

It does not work, the remove button is greyed out.

[romosailor]

This is version 5.2.6 and the guest is Windows Server 2012 R2.

[mpack]

That would mean that you have a running VM which is trying to use those media files. Shut down (not suspend) all VMs.

[romosailor]

I always perform a shutdown from the guest OS, so they are not suspended.

All VMs are shutdown and still the remove button is not available for any item on the VMM.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

[mpack]

The only other thing I can think of is that this media is referenced by a non-current snapshot or linked clone. I'm not sure of VirtualBox behaviour in that scenario because I never use snapshots or linked clones.

[romosailor]

I do use snapshot heavily, so this may be the root cause.

Thanks.

[mpack]

If you have a habit of making live snapshots (i.e. snapshot while the VM is running) then that would bring us back to my earlier point about the VM not being shut down: a live snapshot is effectively a suspended VM plus a disk state.

[romosailor]

No, all snapshots are done with the machines properly shutdown using the guest OS shutdown procedure.

[socratis]

It doesn't matter if it's shutdown or not. The "recipe" of the VM at the time of the snapshot has a CD mounted. What's mounted or not gets saved as part of the snapshot. Remember a snapshot is more than the HD data, it includes most (but not all^[1]) of the settings of a VM. So, you could change network cards, sound options, RAM, vRAM USB filters, etc. And if you revert the snapshot, all the changes are gone. Or reverted if you prefer...


^[1]: Description, type, OS, media registry (known media, not media mounted), all ExtraData.

[romosailor]

OK, so bottom line. I should let go, leave those there and live with it.

Thanks.

[socratis]

You could edit the .vbox file, if you know what you're doing. If you don't, you'd better not.
You could also post the .vbox file and we could guide you through the necessary edits.