How to transfer guest os to other partition (newbie)?

[vbosuer]

Host : Ubuntu 8.04
Guest: Window XP

Hi , I am new here.Having Ubuntu 8.04 which only 20GB of partition size.Without knowing anything about virtualbox setting , I just follow all the default setting installing window XP.
Now the guest window XP keep on growing in size and I am having a few snapshot.

I hope to transfer my guest window XP to other partition but retain all the snapshot and setting.The other partition of mine is 60GB NTFS.

Please guide me through the processing setting step.Read the manual but still can't understand Thank you very much

[vbosuer]

Any help ? how to transfer it ?

[vbosuer]

hi, hoping someone can help me out

[Perryg]

Make a copy of the .virtualbox folder on the partition that you want this to be.
Open the main VBox program and go to preference and change the setting to where it is located.
Once you are sure that it is working then you can delete the vdi file from the original location.

[vbosuer]

Make a copy of the .virtualbox folder on the partition that you want this to be.
Open the main VBox program and go to preference and change the setting to where it is located.
Once you are sure that it is working then you can delete the vdi file from the original location.

Please can you tell me which one I should make copy and what setting I should do ? including snapshot transfer?

[Perryg]

If you copy the .VirtualBox folder complete to the new location.
and then in preferences change the location of the folders to the new location.
All should be fine. You may need to edit the VirtualBox.xml file (still in the .VirtualBox folder in the original location) to indicate the new location.
Remember that you will need to leave the .VirtualBox folder and the virtualbox.xml file in your home folder.

These files/folders are hidden and can be found in /home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/

[vbosuer]

If you copy the .VirtualBox folder complete to the new location.
and then in preferences change the location of the folders to the new location.
All should be fine. You may need to edit the VirtualBox.xml file (still in the .VirtualBox folder in the original location) to indicate the new location.
Remember that you will need to leave the .VirtualBox folder and the virtualbox.xml file in your home folder.

These files/folders are hidden and can be found in /home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/

Means first step
1.Copy the entire folder .VirtualBox from /home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/ to /media/Local Disk_ (FAT32)

2.Change the preference of the default hard disk and default machine folder to /media/Local Disk_ /.VirtualBox/HardDisks and /media/Local Disk_ /.VirtualBox/Machines

3.Open /home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml with gedit and edit.

Which one I should edit ? Is it all the "location=" ?

Code: Select all

        <HardDisk uuid="{08ce56f2-92a5-4932-a121-d5ceaf7476c6}" location="HardDisks/VM Window XP pro.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
          <HardDisk uuid="{3911e570-90fe-4a0d-a6de-5bfa48e7fcba}" location="/home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/Machines/VM Window XP pro/Snapshots/{3911e570-90fe-4a0d-a6de-5bfa48e7fcba}.vdi" format="VDI">
            <HardDisk uuid="{fb07ed7c-24cf-4d13-bcac-32da1e826a30}" location="/home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/Machines/VM Window XP pro/Snapshots/{fb07ed7c-24cf-4d13-bcac-32da1e826a30}.vdi" format="VDI">
              <HardDisk uuid="{1d2a9943-f980-433e-b074-4d8c6bc74a2f}" location="/home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/Machines/VM Window XP pro/Snapshots/{1d2a9943-f980-433e-b074-4d8c6bc74a2f}.vdi" format="VDI"/>
            </HardDisk>
          </HardDisk>
        </HardDisk>
      </HardDisks>
      <DVDImages>
        <Image uuid="{7708f77b-86c2-456d-a284-df080328bfb5}" location="/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso"/>

4.Keep the /home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/ folder and /home/<your login name>/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml

This it correct ? Thank you

[Perryg]

/home/<your login name> = /media/Local Disk_ Change all that match.

I see a real problem in your future though with using FAT32. It only supports 4 Gig file sizes.
And what is it with the special characters ( _ ) You don't need this and it can cause confusion. IMHO

Just remember to not delete anything from the original location before you see that it all works. MAKE A BACKUP of the VirtualBox.xml file before you change anything!

[vbosuer]

What about the <Image uuid="{7708f77b-86c2-456d-a284-df080328bfb5}" location="/usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso"/> ? what should I change ?

The /media/Local Disk_ is the location of my Local Disk since I had both local disk mounted with same name (partition with window xp) it just continue adding the _ .So if I had 3 local disk mounted the third one will looks like /media/Local Disk__

If I had any problem on editing the .xml , can it be revert back ? if I had back up the xml ?

[Perryg]

Since you are only moving /home/<login name>/.VirtualBox you only need to change those reflecting this path in the .VirtualBox.xml
Actually you will only be moving the Harddisk, and Machine folders, but by doing it the way I showed you it will keep the same structure and it will be easier to move, and revert back if you make a mistake.
As long as you have a backup of the file you can always put it back.

[vbosuer]

I am having a problem , how do I attach it back ?.
Thank you

[Perryg]

Look in the settings for the guest. There is a place to define where the snapshots are located.
General -> advanced.

[vbosuer]

Did that , but it said I cannot change the directory.Dont know why ,and I can't set the attach.
How to make it attach ? no matter how I cannot make it attach .
Can you help me please ?
Thank you again

[Perryg]

The only other way that I can think of (since you are using snap shots) is to manually edit the machine xml file to indicate the new location. Be sure to make a backup of this. I can't stress enough that moving these files and having snapshots can be fatal if you make a mistake and do not have a backup of everything to fall back to.

[vbosuer]

you mean backup the .xml or the snapshot ?
I feel really weird why it get "Not Attached" , The main i just wanted it to display attach.Is there a way to edit the xml for it to attach ?