CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
Post Reply
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Perryg »

Vista does allow you to shrink and extend and it is a basic drive structure not dynamic. I changed the size a few times :-)
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

vbox4me2 wrote:Convert to dynamic and then you can resize while windows is running.
I've already been bitten by the fact that third party tools I want to use (e.g. Acronis) do not support dynamic disks, presumably since MS has not documented the format. For that reason I suggest that unless people have a desperate need for the features offered then dynamic disks should be avoided.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

Perryg wrote:I got it all together with gparted Live. Sweet program don't you think?
I've only used it once, so it's hard to form a strong opinion: but it was convenient, it was fast, and it worked, so I was pleased! :)
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

The attachment in the root message of this topic has now been updated to CloneVDI v1.30. This new version adds read support for VMDK files.

I've decided that this is probably the last new feature I'll add for a while, unless there's a huge clamour for something. I always had in mind to add an option to resize the partition at the same time as enlarging the disk, but a gparted-livecd turns out to be so easy and convenient that I don't feel any urgency about that feature any more.

As was the case for VHD, VMDK support is experimental - I had even fewer VMDKs to test with than I had VHDs. On the other hand the few VMDKs I could lay my hands on did in fact cover a wider spectrum of types (from small dynamic to large flat and large dynamic), so I'm reasonably sure you should have no problems with "ordinary" VMDKs.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

Incidentally, I realized after implementing VMDK read support that this also gives me "raw image" support too, almost for free. Suppose you have a dd-like dump of a disk: all you have to do is create a dummy VMDK descriptor for it (referencing a single FLAT extent), and CloneVDI should be able to read it. The raw image does however need to be of the whole disk, i.e. including the MBR along with the rest of track 0.

In fact, if you only had a partition dump then it wouldn't be too hard to synthesize a 2-extent VMDK, the first extent containing the MBR and track 0, the second extent is your partition image.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Perryg »

Thanks Don.
I really enjoy this tool. Small in size but large in performance. Totally useful.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

Thanks for those kind words. :-)

In fact I never intended to support VMDK, but your mention of it a while back gave me an itch that I just couldn't scratch... it was an obvious missing feature, whether it was strictly necessary or not.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Perryg »

Ah, just like me you simply can't deny a challenge even if it is brought up by ourselves.
It comes down to a do-or-die kind of thing that you just can't get out of your mind.
That is old school stuff you know!
bandophahita
Posts: 1
Joined: 7. Oct 2009, 17:44
Primary OS: MS Windows Vista
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: XP, win7, Some 2k3

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by bandophahita »

I am but a simple user of Virtual PC and now Virtual Box and I just had to give my heartfelt thanks to mpack for creating this tool.

Really, thank you! It makes using a default image so much easier with vBox. VPC is fairly userfriendly, but getting some of my users to understand it was a chore in itself. Trying to convert them to vbox (mainly because of USB support) had been frustrating for the simple fact that copying an image and mounting is impossible with UUID's.

Again thank you!
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

You signed on just to say "thank you"? Well thank you in return! :-)
greenscope
Posts: 8
Joined: 8. Apr 2009, 23:00
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by greenscope »

I just tried out your tool recently and it works great!

That option --compact while cloning saves me a lot of time.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad it worked for you.

However, you remind me that I've been meaning to say: I would really appreciate if people would be specific about how they used the tool, e.g. "I compacted a 20GB VMDK to a 12GB VDI". That way I get more of a feel for which bits of the tool are being well tested, and which bits are seldom used, which is valuable feedback for me.

For example, nobody so far has confirmed that VMDK conversion works outside of my PC! :-)
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Perryg »

I use it all on everything. So there :mrgreen:
Works like a champ too!
Oh and I do mean everything. Tried it yesterday under Wine and that was fun too.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Perryg »

Oops sorry, I just did a conversion and it went off flawlessly. Only thing that I noticed that did not work is clicking on header information. Nothing happened. Part info did.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

Perryg wrote:Only thing that I noticed that did not work is clicking on header information. Nothing happened.
Yep, I was wondering how long it would be before somebody noticed! :-)

I realized shortly after uploading v1.30 that I'd never gotten around to doing a "show header" for VMDK (oops!). The complicating factor that had made me put it off is that VMDK doesn't have a simple header, instead it has a descriptor which in most cases is only needed to get the list of extent files, then each extent has its own (potentially very different) header. Makes it hard to do a simple summary!
Post Reply