Virtual machine inaccessible

[rthurlow]

I have VB 1.6.2 on MacOS X 10.5.4. I have a Windows 2000 virtual machine
that I used last night, and won't work this morning. I believe I created a snapshot 1
and a snapshot 2, deleted snapshot 1, and tried to make a new snapshot 1, and
probably then deleted snapshot 2. If that sounds silly, I was just trying to be tidy.
"Won't work" means this:

"The selected virtual machine in inaccessible. Please inspect the error message shown below and press the Refresh button if you want to repeat the inaccessibility check:

Hard disk '/Users/thurlow/Library/VirtualBox/VDI/w2k.vdi' with UUID {440588fc-2d66-4dbb-0783-21f321524a19} is already attached to a machine with UUID {623078a7-2ece-4914-7b99-3cfbe97f3d98} (see '/Users/thurlow/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/w2k/w2k.xml').

Result code: 0x80004005
Component: Machine
Interface: IMachine {f95c0793-7737-49a1-85d9-6da81097173b}"

What can I do to recover this VM?

Thanks,
Rob T

[TerryE]

Read the error message. You have at least two VMs:

• {623078a7-2ece-4914-7b99-3cfbe97f3d98}
  {f95c0793-7737-49a1-85d9-6da81097173b}

You can't attack a disk to the second until you've released it from the first.

[rthurlow]

Read the error message. You have at least two VMs:

• {623078a7-2ece-4914-7b99-3cfbe97f3d98}
  {f95c0793-7737-49a1-85d9-6da81097173b}

You can't attack a disk to the second until you've released it from the first.

I have exactly one Windows VM - there are not in fact two pointing at the same resource. It must look that way to VB, but there is no operation I can take via the menus except to blow away the VM. Since that's the case, I expect the answer is to go edit the XML file, and I don't want to edit that without some kind of clue. My single VM was fine and had one snapshot when I shut it down last night.

Rob T

[TerryE]

OK, email me your:

• machine and VirtualBox XMLs
  a ls -lR $HOME/.VirtualBox or Mac equiv
  a vboxmanage list vms
  a vboxmanage list hdds
  the full error report

to my username at OpenOffice.org and I'll have a look.

[javapop]

How were able to correct this?
I had a similar occurrence...

Getting an error:

Hard disk '/Volumes/windows/vista.vdi' with UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc} is already attached to a machine with UUID {816758a4-94ca-4fea-8796-c9cd4129f7fb} (see '/Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/vista/vista.xml').

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
Machine
Interface:
IMachine {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}

[TerryE]

He never emailed me, but you are free to do so.

[javapop]

He never emailed me, but you are free to do so.

Why thank you! It wouldn't be that big of a deal; but I had just installed Office.... and it would be nice to recover the snapshot!

I will try to get all the info you had requested above. Thanks!

[javapop]

OK, email me your:

• machine and VirtualBox XMLs
  a ls -lR $HOME/.VirtualBox or Mac equiv
  a vboxmanage list vms
  a vboxmanage list hdds
  the full error report

to my username at OpenOffice.org and I'll have a look.

I am not sure how to find your username at OpenOffice.org... can you clarify?
Thanks!

[TerryE]

Looks as if you found the email address I use for receiving OOo / VBox notifications anyway. OK, let's go back to the error message for those following this topic:

Code: Select all

Hard disk '/Volumes/windows/vista.vdi' with UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc} is already attached to a machine with UUID {816758a4-94ca-4fea-8796-c9cd4129f7fb} (see '/Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/vista/vista.xml').

Result Code: 
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: 
Machine
Interface: 
IMachine {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}

What this tells me is that you've got at least two registered VMs

• vista from session UUID {816758a4-94ca-4fea-8796-c9cd4129f7fb}
• ? from session UUID {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}

that both refer to the same hdd: vista.vdi UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc}. This will fail the VBox integrity checks and result in a 0x80004005 failure. The vboxmanage list vms that you supplied by email tells me that the first VM has an unknown name but with VM UUID {b770f570-6f6a-4102-9ba4-6f595ac530ee}. The second VM is called Vista-11-08 with VM UUID {72d70987-08b3-4564-83e7-c5a59cb8660a}.

I suspect the problems are due to having two VMs and the parser hickuping over names with embedded hyphens. As a general hint I recommend using either names without embedded spaces or punctuation or make all references by UUID. Both look like they have snapshots. You need to look at the two XML files:

• /Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/vista/vista.xml
  /Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/Vista-11-08/Vista-11-08.xml

and decide which you want to delete. You can only keep one, because they both reference the same disk. You can do this from a terminal window. You need to move the hdd from machine that you want to delete and then unregister it. This will mean that the hdd is now only referenced in one VM, so this should start OK.

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# Either b770f570-6f6a-4102-9ba4-6f595ac530ee or 72d70987-08b3-4564-83e7-c5a59cb8660a goes on the following line
$VM=<the UUID to delete goes here> 
VBoxManage modifyvm $VM -hda none -hdb none -hdd none
VBoxManage unregistervm $VM 
VBoxManage list vms

Hope that this helps.

[javapop]

What this tells me is that you've got at least two registered VMs... You need to look at the two XML files:

• /Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/vista/vista.xml
  /Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/Vista-11-08/Vista-11-08.xml

and decide which you want to delete.

Thanks Terry, I did delete the new one I added; but unfortunately... did this without doing the following first:

You need to move the hdd from machine that you want to delete and then unregister it. This will mean that the hdd is now only referenced in one VM, so this should start OK.

From terminal, I get the following on vboxmanage list vms now:

Code: Select all

Name:            <inaccessible!>
UUID:            b770f570-6f6a-4102-9ba4-6f595ac530ee
Config file:     /Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/vista/vista.xml
Access error details:
[!] Full error info present: true , basic error info present: true 
[!] Result Code = NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) - Operation failed
[!] Text        = Hard disk '/Volumes/windows/vista.vdi' with UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc} is already attached to a machine with UUID {b770f570-6f6a-4102-9ba4-6f595ac530ee} (see '/Users/greenpea/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/vista/vista.xml')
[!] Component   = Machine, Interface: IMachine, {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}
[!] Callee      = <NULL>, {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}

So, I have one VB now; but it still has the initial problem. I am new at using terminal; but am learning a great more about what drives the VM.

Can the xml files just be edited to reflect the correct VM, as well as using the VBoxManage utility? Thanks again!!

[javapop]

One more note, I originally created a 20GB partition which now has a vista .vdi with UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc}

If I go into virtual disk manager, and try to use either the existing disk on the partition mentioned above, or the 2nd vdi which I moved to an external sata drive, I get the error:

Code: Select all

A hard disk with UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc} or with the same properties ('/Volumes/windows/vista.vdi') is already registered.

or

Code: Select all

Hard disk image '/Volumes/GreenPeas Storage/{0b7d5081-488e-4b8e-bb0d-9a1907ffddf8}.vdi' is a differencing image that is linked to a hard disk with UUID {0b89f351-e771-41b8-a01e-ab003b9a82dc} and cannot be used directly as a base hard disk.

How do I set back up a new VM using an already registered vdi file?

[TerryE]

The VBox metadatabase relies on consistency between the VirtualBox.xml and the various <machine>.xml files. If you loose this for whatever reason then the repair facilities are somewhat limited. You need to do this manually. The DTDs for the XML is quite straight forward. This is reasonably easy if you are careful.

[javapop]

The VBox metadatabase relies on consistency between the VirtualBox.xml and the various <machine>.xml files. If you loose this for whatever reason then the repair facilities are somewhat limited. You need to do this manually. The DTDs for the XML is quite straight forward. This is reasonably easy if you are careful.

It's almost like a code that you have to break!
Thank you very much for your assistance. I did end up working with a previous snapshot, and just reinstalling office. I'll be very careful about moving things around in the future!!!

[ubundom]

I am having a tough time getting to grips with this; I thought that I had a successful setup with one WinXP guest: A snapshot and a Current State. I guess that I goofed with dashes and spaces in the names of the VMs. Here is my error output:

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Hard disk '/media/sda6/VDI/xp.vdi' with UUID {7483c844-587a-404e-9af3-3a0637514ae5} is already attached to a machine with UUID {d5f0e49f-92ea-4f08-56b2-18fb6c57b750} (see '/home/dominic/.VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/WinXP.xml').
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
Machine
Interface:
IMachine {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}

and my VMs

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VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.0.4_OSE (C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Name:            <inaccessible!>
UUID:            d5f0e49f-92ea-4f08-56b2-18fb6c57b750
Config file:     /home/dominic/.VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/WinXP.xml
Access error details:
[!] Full error info present: true , basic error info present: true 
[!] Result Code = NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) - Operation failed
[!] Text        = Hard disk '/media/sda6/VDI/xp.vdi' with UUID {7483c844-587a-404e-9af3-3a0637514ae5} is already attached to a machine with UUID {d5f0e49f-92ea-4f08-56b2-18fb6c57b750} (see '/home/dominic/.VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/WinXP.xml')
[!] Component   = Machine, Interface: IMachine, {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}
[!] Callee      = <NULL>, {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

and my HDDs

Code: Select all

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.0.4_OSE (C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
UUID:         7483c844-587a-404e-9af3-3a0637514ae5
Storage type: Virtual Disk Image
Path:         /media/sda6/VDI/xp.vdi
Accessible:   yes

Any help to retrieve all my hard work locked up inside that vdi would be very good indeed.

[Minette]

I've had numerous problems with VBox, and the last one probably stems from the others.
I had a feeling when I removed the first snapshot I should not have tinkered with that.
Well, too late. I get the messag e that my virtual machine is inaccessible with the following error message.

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Hard disk '/Users/paulp/Library/VirtualBox/VDI/Win XP.vdi' with UUID {f59fe204-ed7c-40fd-9e94-cb79ee5be4c8} is already attached to a machine with UUID {c167b33c-3e16-4214-a6e4-0c3f9509e513} (see '/Users/paulp/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/Win XP/Win XP.xml').

Result Code: 
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: 
Machine
Interface: 
IMachine {1e509de4-d96c-4f44-8b94-860194f710ac}

I swear I did not change anything on the Win XP vm. I did try to remove the second virtual DISK attached to it, but here too I had many problems as it would keep on popping back.

I use vbox 2.0.6 on Mac 10.5.5. host with XP Pro as the vm.