Error:Parent medium with UUID is not found in the media registry

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MrVincent
Posts: 1
Joined: 19. Apr 2018, 09:01

Error:Parent medium with UUID is not found in the media registry

Post by MrVincent »

Hi guys, I encounter an error when i try to open an existing VDI file. This file is stored before virtual Box goes corrupt somehow. And I try to create a new VM with this VDI file. When I imported it, it says:
Parent medium with UUID {88f28f24-4265-4540-8065-aa517cb9b742} of the medium 'C:\Users\liwf6\VirtualBox VMs\kk\kk.vdi' is not found in the media registry ('C:\Users\liwf6/.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml').

return code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Medium
IMedium {05f2bbb6-a3a6-4fb9-9b49-6d0dda7142ac}
IVirtualBox {fafa4e17-1ee2-4905-a10e-fe7c18bf5554}
RC: VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80BB0001)
I tried change its UUID with vboxmanage, but it doesn't work. I found there is no .vbox file where .vdi is. When I try to add MachineEntry in virtualBox.xml, it turns to be overwritten when I open virtualBox.
So how to handle this case? I search with google but haven't found any solutions. I am using oracle virtualbox 4.3.12.

Thanks a lot.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Error:Parent medium with UUID is not found in the media registry

Post by mpack »

Your actions don't make sense given the error message. The message says that your VDI is not stand alone, it requires a parent medium (e.g. if it's a linked clone, it requires the parent VM to be present), and that parent medium is not found (i.e. not registered by any known VM).

You can't fix this by fiddling with UUIDs. You fix it by putting the parent medium where it should be, registered by at least one VM (ideally the original VM, or these problems just accumulate). It's your PC, presumably you created these VMs, so it's up to you to know what the parent would be, and where it should be found.

I should mention that I never use snapshots or linked clones myself, at least never for more than a few minutes, because their piecemeal nature makes them inherently fragile in my opinion. I don't have to remember what additional dependencies my VMs have, because they have none.

Moving VDI files around is not a good way to backup or restore VMs. Backing up and restoring are just special cases of moving a VM, so have a read of: Howto: Move a VM. If you are restoring linked clone VMs then you still have to restore the parent VM first.
Tronmch2
Posts: 33
Joined: 15. Aug 2018, 18:11

Re: Error:Parent medium with UUID is not found in the media registry

Post by Tronmch2 »

I get this exact issue if I am moving a linked clone and its base. If I:
1. Remove the linked clone using "remove only"
2. Remove the parent
3. Move them BOTH to a new location.
4. Add the parent VM
5. TRY to add the child VM.

I am not able to do so because the child disk of the parent VM is not registered in the media registry -- because the parent VM media registry no longer recognizes the child disk.

This can't be THAT uncommon a usecase. It looks like I have to, in the future:
1. make a copy of the parent and child vbox files.
2. Follow steps 1-3 above.
3. cut, paste, and edit the child media information from the parent vbox file, with the edit pointing to the new location.
4. Add the parent VM
5. Add the child.

Virtualbox needs to have a way to relink the parent and the child.
LuizVaz
Posts: 1
Joined: 30. Apr 2019, 01:47

Re: Error:Parent medium with UUID is not found in the media registry

Post by LuizVaz »

The solution is very simple:

- Add the offending UUIDs following in the sequence in XML of old media registry.

In my case, even saving all in the same folder, I got the UUID error.
Adding each one below, following the right sequence worked.

Code: Select all

      <HardDisks>
        <HardDisk uuid="{0ab70c1d-6439-4254-8ed5-ac726c68f1b1}" location="IE10-Win7-disk1.vmdk" format="VMDK" type="Normal">
          <HardDisk uuid="{e3d2b131-7ee8-4ec0-8ebd-1f6708fb776a}" location="Snapshots/{e3d2b131-7ee8-4ec0-8ebd-1f6708fb776a}.vmdk" format="VMDK">
            <HardDisk uuid="{86ba69b6-5923-403b-9531-f261e8deb105}" location="Snapshots/{86ba69b6-5923-403b-9531-f261e8deb105}.vmdk" format="VMDK"/>
          </HardDisk>
        </HardDisk>
      </HardDisks>
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Error:Parent medium with UUID is not found in the media registry

Post by mpack »

That is not a universal solution. In the case of a linked clone (i.e. the OPs case), if you use that method to hack the registration of the child, then you'll get a "media already registered" error when you try to register the parent VM. Better IMHO to just register the VMs in the correct order (parent, then children), as already mentioned.

Also, we generally do not advocate manual editing of the XML files except as a very last resort. In this case it is not necessary.
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