Solved: Windows INACCESSIBLE!

t.lanphear · Post by **t.lanphear** » 9. Apr 2008, 16:11

So, I tried to load up my Windows guest (XP SP2) running on Ubuntu 7.10 host this morning, and it froze up my computer. Then, after restarting, I get the following message:

Could not load the settings file '/home/thomas/.VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/WinXP.xml' (VERR_OPEN_FAILED).
FATAL ERROR: The input ended before all started tags were ended. Last tag started was 'VirtualBox'
Location: '/home/thomas/.VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/WinXP.xml', line 66, column 1.

Result Code:
0x80004005
Component:
Machine
Interface:
IMachine {31f7169f-14da-4c55-8cb6-a3665186e35e}

If someone could help me, I would certainly appreciate it. This is impacting my ability to work today.

Post by **over_clox** » 9. Apr 2008, 20:10

Ooohhh... not good.

Based on the last line number, I assume you were running from a savestate when this happened, or maybe you just saved a state shortly before. Either way, I hate to say you're probably going to lose the data in those snapshots. If it's extremely important to you, I'll do everything in my power to try to help you recover it, but the XML config files can get confusing really quick with all the UUIDs involved, so don't get your hopes too high. You should post the contents of the XML for analysis, along with VirtualBox.xml for reference. If somehow you don't have savestates, or the data in the savestates isn't important, then you can delete the VM (keep the VDI though) and build another VM around that.

Also note that I'm not a Linux guy, but I have transferred a VM with running snapshots to another host system, which is challenging to say the least. If I can help any more with this, I'll need to know what all folders store which VBox files.

t.lanphear · Post by **t.lanphear** » 9. Apr 2008, 20:18

Thanks for your response over_clox. It sounds like I'm in a bad spot. I don't have any snapshots to revert to, so I think that means the same as "saved states" that you're referring to. I only ran Windows to run the few programs I need that I can't run under Wine. I guess I might not need them that much.

What I get from your reply, is that I essentially would need to install/build a whole new Windows environment and then reinstall everything I've installed there. Is that accurate? I don't think I want to spend an awful lot of time on this at the moment, so can you spell out my options, or confirm what I think? Thanks again!

t.lanphear · Post by **t.lanphear** » 9. Apr 2008, 20:19

Almost forgot--I'm not sure what you meant by saved state, ultimately. All I know is that I fired up VirtualBox from a clean (I think) restart, and this is the message I got. It was running fine until this point when my whole computer froze up.

Post by **over_clox** » 9. Apr 2008, 20:30

No no no, you shouldn't need to reinstall Windows at all, unless your master VDI became corrupted (its the only one you'll ever worry with, the rest are managed by VBox for savestates). All you need to do is delete that particular virtual machine, but keep the VDI used to boot it, then create another VM and attach that VDI to it. It is possible that VirtualBox.xml will need to be modified to remove the old VM, since I'm pretty sure VBox is pretty confused right now with a damaged config file. Before recreating the VM, it would also be very advisable to remove the folder for the old VM under the Machines folder. If you ever did have any savestates, I'm sure this will free up some space and avoid any further conflicts.

I use snapshot/savestate interchangeably, sorry to confuse you.

t.lanphear · Post by **t.lanphear** » 9. Apr 2008, 21:23

Well, that certainly sounds better. How do point the new VM to the existing VDI? I've never had to do this before (obviously). Is it as easy as

Post by **over_clox** » 9. Apr 2008, 21:42

If everything was working right, it would be as simple as unmounting the VDI from one machine, then mounting it in another through the VBox GUI. Since your config files are messed up, you might have problems trying to unmount the VDI from the old guest, which is why your VirtualBox.xml config file would need to be modified, to remove that VM manually and free up its VDI resources. I expect that you're having problems with unmounting it, since you probably can't configure that VM from the VBox GUI.

t.lanphear · Post by **t.lanphear** » 9. Apr 2008, 21:51

Sorry--is it as easy as just deleting and adding, or is there something tricky I have to do to point it to the existing VDI?

t.lanphear · Post by **t.lanphear** » 9. Apr 2008, 22:23

Alrighty then. I added a new VM and selected the existing VDI, as you described. I can't even believe what happened next...

It worked! Thanks a ton. The answer, in the end, was simple, but I don't think I ever would have thought to try that. I've deleted the other VM (unregistered, actually), and everything seems to be working fine.

Thank you!

Post by **over_clox** » 9. Apr 2008, 22:29

First, if possible, open the configuration page for the messed up VM. If it opens, go to the Hard Disks config page and deselect every VDI you have mounted in it, then hit OK. This will unmount the VDI from the faulty guest VM. If you can't open the config page, VirtualBox.xml will need to be fixed manually before you can proceed.

After the VDI has been successfully unmounted, you'll have to create a new VM, with appropriate settings for the guest system of course, and configure it to use the existing VDI from the old faulty guest, which should remain registered in VBox and still show up in Virtual Disk Manager, so you can point to an existing image and select it from the list.

Note that I'm not a Linux guy, and I'm just assuming your GUI is essentially the same as mine on XP.