Rename VMs after Cloning

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Adaptive
Posts: 1
Joined: 4. Feb 2016, 18:04

Rename VMs after Cloning

Post by Adaptive »

Hello all,

I had a windows 8 VM named Win8 and before I updated to Windows 10 I made a clone of it just in case things did not work.

I upgraded to Windows 10, tested everything, and then deleted the clone (the vm and all files). Now I have a new VM that I renamed to Win10. However, when I launch it, it says Win10 (Linked Base for Win8 and Win8 Clone).

How can I rename this guy thoroughly so that is is just Win10? I know the name seems like a small thing, but this VM is sometimes customer facing so I would really like a clean name on the window bar.

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

Re: Rename VMs after Cloning

Post by mpack »

If it was a linked clone then it wasn't a backup in any sense. In any case cloning is not appropriate for backups. For the most appropriate way see Howto: Move a VM (interpret the title as How to move a VM <to or from backup storage>).

A linked clone is not a copy, it's a branch of the original VM. The original VM's disk is frozen (no more writes allowed), and both the original and linked clones thereafter use a difference image to record subsequent disk writes. Therefore your "backup" contained nothing but a link back to the original VM, and an empty difference file. This effectively freezes the original VM name as well, since names and UUIDs are important for connecting to the linked base.

It's actually quite difficult to recover from this... change. The most obvious solution is to do a full clone of the VM, which you can then name in any way you like. However that will raise activation issues with Windows, since the clone is technically a different PC (as your Win8 "backup" was btw - another reason why clones are never appropriate for Windows VM backups).

Were you already using snapshots before you created the linked clone? If not then manually correcting the .vbox file may be the safest option: after making a proper backup of course.
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