[WorksForMe] Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

[WorksForMe] Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

I have been attempting to increase the storage I've allocated for my Virtual Machine, guest is Windows 10 and host is MacOS El Capitan, Version 10.11.06. I increased the size in Mac Terminal, which was successful; however, when I rebooted the virtual machine and went to manage the storage, the unallocated partition was not visible.

My next step was following this video (www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=7Aqx-VHv2_k) in which I removed the attachment from the Controller, and then attempted to add it back. I added the hard disk from the existing disk I had been using, which was successful. However, when I rebooted the virtual machine, it opened into a snapshot from February 2017, and it seems I've lost everything going forward from that point. Is there a reason this happened, and is that information recoverable? If so, how do I get it back?

Thanks,
Ian
Last edited by socratis on 25. Apr 2018, 07:23, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Marked as [WorksForMe].
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

I have no clue what that video says, neither I'm planning on investigating it. It's inherently dangerous to seek random vloggers' advice. Anyway, the proper way to resize a VM is actually in a FAQ called: How to resize a Virtual Drive.
irodg92 wrote:I added the hard disk from the existing disk I had been using, which was successful.
What exactly do you mean. That is not detailed enough I'm afraid to make heads or tails. Can you give me some more details, including names?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by mpack »

irodg92 wrote: My next step was following this video (www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=7Aqx-VHv2_k) in which I removed the attachment from the Controller, and then attempted to add it back.
In a VM which uses snapshots? That sounds terminal.

Oh well, at least you have that backup you took before trying dangerous third party advice, right?
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

socratis wrote:It's inherently dangerous to seek random vloggers' advice.
mpack wrote:In a VM which uses snapshots?
I finally took the plunge and decided to watch the video. Turns out it's not that bad after all, except one thing:
  • No Snapshots are used and no warning was given!
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

Thanks for your help.

I had tried following instructions similar to the ones you linked in your response (of course, I did not get instructions that included the warning about snapshots, which was my second mistake-mistake 1 was not backing up before trying anything.) The problem I kept running into with the instructions was that whenever I went to extend the size of my partition, the unallocated partition wasn't showing up, which is what led me to the video (mistake number 3).

So now that I made those mistakes, I am running my VM from a snapshot taken on 2/26/17.

I have 1 question, then:

1) I have a copy of the vdi I had been using, and it was last modified hours before I made any of these changes and lost my data. Could that at all help in getting any of the information back?
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

Can you do me a favor and do a folder listing at the location of the VM?
  • ls -alR "<LocationOfTheVM>"
And ZIP the .vbox file that corresponds to the VM (right-click, Show in Finder) and attach it to your response.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

The zip file is still uploading, but here is the folder listing:

For reference, I removed the attachment at 21:00 on April 20.

Code: Select all

Ians-MacBook-Pro-2:~ ianrodgers$ ls -alr "/Users/ianrodgers/VirtualBox VMs/Ian Windows 10"
total 81802120
drwx------  9 ianrodgers  staff          306 Apr 22 11:19 Snapshots
drwx------  6 ianrodgers  staff          204 Apr 22 11:43 Logs
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff        34345 Apr 22 11:45 Ian Windows 10.vbox-prev
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff        33599 Apr 22 11:47 Ian Windows 10.vbox
-rw-r--r--  1 ianrodgers  staff    720750873 Apr 22 12:22 Ian Windows 10 NEW.vdi.zip
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  41161850880 Apr 20 11:50 Ian Windows 10 NEW.vdi
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ianrodgers  staff         6148 Apr 22 11:23 .DS_Store
drwxr-xr-x  5 ianrodgers  staff          170 Apr 22 11:46 ..
drwxr-xr-x  9 ianrodgers  staff          306 Apr 22 12:21 .
Last edited by socratis on 22. Apr 2018, 23:54, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Enclosed the information in [code] tag for better readability
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

irodg92 wrote:The zip file is still uploading
What on earth are you uploading? War and Peace? :D
irodg92 wrote:I removed the attachment at 21:00 on April 20.
I don't remember any attachments, and I don't see any edits in your messages, so I'm not quite sure what you're referring to...

I gave you a command to run, please pay close attention to the command, it's not open to interpretation I'm afraid. I told you to run:
socratis wrote:
ls -alR "<LocationOfTheVM>"
and you run:
ls -alr "/Users/ianrodgers/VirtualBox VMs/Ian Windows 10"
Do you see the difference? Capital "R" vs. small "r". That makes a key difference in the output; I don't get to see the VM's subdirectories and its contents. Please try again...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

I'm uploading the zip file (even compressed, it's over 21GB). It's at 66%.

The attachment I was referring to was when I removed the disk (following the video we discussed earlier), in case the time mattered for the folder listing.

And I apologize about the code, I am usually coding in SAS where case matters less. Sorry about that. Here is the output:

Code: Select all

Ians-MacBook-Pro-2:~ ianrodgers$ ls -alR "/Users/ianrodgers/VirtualBox VMs/Ian Windows 10"
total 123118896
drwxr-xr-x  9 ianrodgers  staff          306 Apr 22 15:14 .
drwxr-xr-x  5 ianrodgers  staff          170 Apr 22 11:46 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ianrodgers  staff         6148 Apr 22 11:23 .DS_Store
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  41161850880 Apr 20 11:50 Ian Windows 10 NEW.vdi
-rw-r--r--  1 ianrodgers  staff  21874941023 Apr 22 12:49 Ian Windows 10 NEW.vdi.zip
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff        33599 Apr 22 15:14 Ian Windows 10.vbox
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff        33599 Apr 22 13:50 Ian Windows 10.vbox-prev
drwx------  6 ianrodgers  staff          204 Apr 22 13:50 Logs
drwx------  9 ianrodgers  staff          306 Apr 22 11:19 Snapshots

/Users/ianrodgers/VirtualBox VMs/Ian Windows 10/Logs:
total 920
drwx------  6 ianrodgers  staff     204 Apr 22 13:50 .
drwxr-xr-x  9 ianrodgers  staff     306 Apr 22 15:14 ..
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  129059 Apr 22 15:15 VBox.log
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  113745 Apr 22 11:45 VBox.log.1
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  109229 Apr 22 11:21 VBox.log.2
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  114290 Apr 21 18:57 VBox.log.3

/Users/ianrodgers/VirtualBox VMs/Ian Windows 10/Snapshots:
total 120165920
drwx------  9 ianrodgers  staff          306 Apr 22 11:19 .
drwxr-xr-x  9 ianrodgers  staff          306 Apr 22 15:14 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 ianrodgers  staff         6148 Apr 20 21:56 .DS_Store
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff   1135824788 Feb 26  2017 2017-02-26T17-17-42-918014000Z.sav
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff    897106746 Apr 21 18:56 2018-04-21T22-56-32-640822000Z.sav
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  13360955392 Apr 21 18:56 {39ecaa1e-bfba-499f-b7b4-4d2234e7cd9d}.vdi
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff   5880414208 Apr 22 15:14 {837d1648-4b84-4444-9661-b447554a7ce9}.vdi
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff  40176189440 Apr 20 21:05 {a74053b8-24f2-4580-a763-56f3a2571750}.vdi
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff     74448896 Apr 21 18:57 {d9712998-5c71-4a05-bedc-644ad99cbda4}.vdi
Last edited by socratis on 23. Apr 2018, 09:41, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Enclosed the information in [code] tag for better readability
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

The file took about 9 hours to upload. I don't see it attached to this reply. Can try again tomorrow if it might help.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

socratis wrote:And ZIP the .vbox file that corresponds to the VM (right-click, Show in Finder) and attach it to your response.
irodg92 wrote:I'm uploading the zip file (even compressed, it's over 21GB). It's at 66%.
irodg92 wrote:
-rw-------  1 ianrodgers  staff        33599 Apr 22 15:14 Ian Windows 10.vbox
There is no way, on this side of the universe, that a text file of 33599 bytes will be zipped to something that's over 21 GB!!! :shock:

I asked you about the ".vbox" file. I believe you're trying to upload the ".vdi" file. There's no way that you are going to upload a VDI, it won't go through due to size limits. That's why it won't show.

Once again, I'll have to point that you got to read the instructions given a little bit more carefully... ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

You're absolutely right-I promise I'm not usually this bad at reading...

Here it is.
Attachments
Ian Windows 10.vbox.zip
(4.57 KiB) Downloaded 15 times
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

<HardDisk uuid="{16a60db0-2e58-4af1-8d9c-ad795c1ef518}" location="Ian Windows 10.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal"/>
<HardDisk uuid="{d990dd5d-c8ec-43ac-a4bb-d6bff7a9e3e1}" location="Ian Windows 10 NEW.vdi" format="VDI" type="Normal">
I see the second VDI in the listing. I don't see the first one. What's going on here?
What's the "Ian Windows 10 NEW.vdi"?
What was the "Ian Windows 10.vdi"?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
irodg92
Posts: 10
Joined: 21. Apr 2018, 03:36

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by irodg92 »

The first VDI was not ever one I used, if I remember correctly. Ian Windows 10 NEW was the VDI I used.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Year-old snapshot booting after resizing virtual machine

Post by socratis »

Great, that's an excellent answer! :)
So, let's recap, because everything seems to check out correctly. What's your problem exactly?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Post Reply