Setting an specific UUID of a virtual disk

[pablomakin]

Hello everyone,

I have a Windows XP virtual machine running on Mac OSX Lion. Previously, I had another virtual machine with a lot of software installed. One of these applications had a license linked to the UUID of the virtual disk. Now, I have installed it in the new virtual machine, but the UUID is different and the license file is not valid. So, I want to set the UUID to an specific value. With VboxHDTools is possible to change this UUID, but it sets a random value.

Thanks for your help!

[Perryg]

The command you are looking for is (which may or may not work for what you are up against) Make sure you have a backup!

Code: Select all

VBoxManage modifyvm <uuid|name>  [--hardwareuuid <uuid>]

See VBoxManage in your VirtualBox users guide for more.

[mpack]

Um. Actually the UUID that Perry is changing is the machine UUID (basically, the motherboard ID). It's definitely worth doing what Perry said (taking the uuid from the old VM), but the hard disk UUID is separate and the only way to change it to a specific value is using the undocumented command "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid <vdiname> <uuid>". Be aware that changing the hd UUID will kill any snapshots, and in any case will not work if the original hd with that UUID is still registered.