Could not get the storage format of the medium

[blrafael]

Error adding disk.vdi existing in virutal machine.

VirtualBox error: rc=0x80bb0001 Could not get the storage format of the medium

I tried to clonehd.

~# vboxmanage clonehd --format VDI disk.vdi disk_new.vdi
VBoxManage: error: Could not get the storage format of the medium '/vms/machine/disk.vdi' (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005), component Medium, interface IMedium, callee nsISupports
VBoxManage: error: Context: "OpenMedium(Bstr(pszFilenameOrUuid).raw(), enmDevType, enmAccessMode, fForceNewUuidOnOpen, pMedium.asOutParam())" at line 178 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

I tried to repairhd

~# vboxmanage internalcommands repairhd disk.vdi -format VDI
VBoxManage: error: VDI: invalid pre-header in 'disk.vdi'
VBoxManage: error: Error code VERR_VD_IMAGE_REPAIR_IMPOSSIBLE at /home/vbox/vbox-4.3.8/src/VBox/Storage/VDI.cpp(3037) in function int vdiRepair(const char*, VDINTERFACE*, VDINTERFACE*, uint32_t)

Can someone help me ?

Tranks !

[mpack]

Well to put it most simply, "Could not get the storage format" means that your VDI is not a VDI, despite the extension.

Either the file has been corrupted beyond recognition, or it was never a VDI. If you were to save off the first 1K of the header as a binary file, then zip and attach the zipped binary here, then I could possibly tell you what the file actually is.

[blrafael]

Sorry. but How i do it ? (to save off the first 1K of the header as a binary file).

I think i got.

[mpack]

The appropriate tool to "save off" would have been a hex editor. I don't use Linux hosts, so I'm afraid I can't recommend one. I'm assuming however that the attachment means that you found a way.

Anyway, that header is all zeros. If the rest of the file is like that then your VDI is basically an empty shell: a big box with no contents. This is usually caused by using snake oil file recovery tools, or by transporting the file on bad media, I've also seen it on shared folders, when the writing software ignores network permission errors.

What is the history of this VDI file? I note that your original post contains no mention of the accompanying VM having ever worked on this host.

[blrafael]

This vdi was on a disk that had block problems. This running in another host. I hung up and copied to another disk and tried to add to an existing VM. and I got this error. It should contain data.

[mpack]

Well, in that case I would guess that the copy tool you used couldn't actually read from the source, and hence had to substitute blocks filled with zeros. Normally an app would error out if it can't read from the source, but perhaps you had deliberately told it to ignore errors.

The next thing you could try would be to save off the first 2049600 bytes to a file, ZIP THE FILE, then attach the zip here. However if you get a huge compression ratio, i.e. if the resulting zip is 1K or less, then you needn't bother uploading it as that can only mean that the file is empty - all zeros. If that portion of the file has usable data then it's possible that the header can be repaired, because it would mean that the majority is intact (particularly the block map).

[blrafael]

The vdi contains 140GB, we performed direct zip on Linux hosts. where is the vdi file. and the same was with 133MB. then should apeans be the header that with this problem? we could fix?

Link disk zip: https://mega.nz/#!TkoEHLqQ!hZtWZzRSiWOF ... 8EcWQmfAiM