Errors after duplicating Windows XP virtual hosts.

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
Post Reply
ericleestewart
Posts: 4
Joined: 15. Feb 2009, 03:34

Errors after duplicating Windows XP virtual hosts.

Post by ericleestewart »

First of my setup.

VB: 2.1.0 (After reading about a lot of Mac users running into very sluggish VMs when installing Windows, I've opted to not upgrade to 2.1.2.)
Host: MacPro 10.5.6
Guest: WindowsXP patched to SP3.

Now for the problem. I've created a Windows XP VM and it works perfectly. I then looked for instructions in the Manual for duplicating the VM and I didn't find any specifically for this task. But I did find a lot of information in and around the topic. So I used the following process to attempted to create a duplicate VM.

I first duplicated the vdi using "VBoxManage clonehd source_vdi destination_vdi". This completed successfully.

I then created a new VM (couldn't find anything which would duplicate an existing one) with the exact same settings as the original except I chose the new vdi as it's hard drive.

When I boot the new VM, Windows does it's disk check and finds errors. It them spends an hour recovering thousands of files. Once that completes Windows finishes booting and does not work properly. The task bar is missing and things just plain don't work.

I've attempted this process twice now with the exact same results both times.

Have I missed a step somewhere or done something wrong? Any advice would be helpful.

Eric Lee Stewart
nitecruser
Posts: 5
Joined: 15. Feb 2009, 07:36

Windows XP Duplicating VM

Post by nitecruser »

Speed: If you're more concerned with speed I would recommend using the latest version of vb and windowsXP sp2, I have found sp3 to be a real speed killer. If you're worried about security remember that you can always isolate windows from the internet in vb.

Duplicating VM:
Just copy the "vdi" file to a new directory and create a new client thru the wizard pointing to the new directory. I did this once on a laptop and it worked perfectly. If I recall the correctly the first bootup took a short while but after that everything was fine.

Good luck!
ericleestewart
Posts: 4
Joined: 15. Feb 2009, 03:34

Post by ericleestewart »

Everything I've read in the forums and in the manual says that if I want to clone the VDI and use it on the same machine, I have to use VBoxManage clonehd or the VM will puke when I try and start a new VM with just a normal copying of the file.

I also noticed, when I do a VBoxManage clonehd, the new vdi is a different size than the old VDI. There's about a 10MB discrepancy between the two.

Eric Lee Stewart
baf
Volunteer
Posts: 829
Joined: 27. Sep 2008, 06:18
Primary OS: Mac OS X Leopard
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: linux,xp,win7
Location: Luleå or Skellefteå, Sweden

Post by baf »

Copy the file with a normal copy
use
VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid <filepath>

done
sethduuid might be setvdiuuid instead.
Some say: "You learn as long as you live".
My way: "You live as long as you learn".
ericleestewart
Posts: 4
Joined: 15. Feb 2009, 03:34

Problem Solved

Post by ericleestewart »

baf,

Thank you kindly. That completely solved my problem.

Eric Lee Stewart
Post Reply