UUID does not match the value in the registry

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axebox
Posts: 4
Joined: 9. Dec 2012, 03:06

UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by axebox »

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine IE9.

UUID {7eaf241b-6f17-d346-b45c-1bb31ac14076} of the medium '/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/axebox/.ievms/vhd/IE9/Windows 7.vhd' does not match the value {d525cf2e-f15c-453c-b5c2-4984d70fed28} stored in the media registry ('/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/axebox/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml').

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: Medium
Interface: IMedium {29989373-b111-4654-8493-2e1176cba890}

----------

Fair enough. When I change the registry value to match the correct one, it reverts back to the old one. I've removed IE9 from the VM Manager, edited the registry, started VM Manager and when I start IE9 I get the same error. It just keeps reverting to the old UUID.

How can this be fixed?
mpack
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Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by mpack »

axebox wrote:How can this be fixed?
That can't be answered. The error message tells us that you broke something, but to fix it we need to know what you did.
axebox wrote:When I change the registry value to match the correct one
How are you changing the registry value, and how did you establish that it was the correct value?

Perhaps best to tell us what you were trying to do.
axebox
Posts: 4
Joined: 9. Dec 2012, 03:06

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by axebox »

I got the UUID from the error message.

I got this same erorr on another VM after upgrading my macbook. I deleted the VM and reinstalled it. That seemed to work. I tried the same with the IE9 VM, and it did boot initially. That was the only time though - it's been giving me this same error message ever since.

I've been editing the XML file in vi.
Perryg
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Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by Perryg »

axebox wrote:I've been editing the XML file in vi.
And did you see the warning about doing this at the top?

You must make sure everything VirtualBox is closed and no VBox service running or it will overwrite what you put in.
axebox
Posts: 4
Joined: 9. Dec 2012, 03:06

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by axebox »

So I think it might be the UUID of the vhd that's differing. Is there a way I can rebuild this file?
axebox
Posts: 4
Joined: 9. Dec 2012, 03:06

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by axebox »

Or change the UUID of only the vhd?
mpack
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Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by mpack »

If a VM is mounting the wrong hard disk then, usually, the easiest cure is to remove the disk then mount the correct disk. To remove the old disk you use File | Virtual Media Manager, Release and then Remove the old disk. I would suggest that you answer "No" to the question about deleting the physical file.

Of course, you now have the added complication that you've been tampering with the xml, so there's no knowing what will work and what won't.

Part of your problem is that your VirtualBox.xml file is using a legacy (v3 or earlier) format. Hence the confusion over the location of the media registry. I suspect that you manually copied this obsolete file to a new host, when what you should have done was, first ensure that all VMs were updated to use v4 format, then copy the VMs only to the new host, using Machine|Add to register them there.
mdob
Posts: 1
Joined: 2. Oct 2015, 08:02

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by mdob »

After cloning vdi drive, I was getting similar error:

Code: Select all

UUID {bb0cb72e-70b7-4320-b9e6-9c89888e1ac4} of the medium 'D:\virtualboxes\DevBox\DevBox.vdi' does not match the value {43698713-238b-411c-9244-9bc68f9dd2e7} stored in the media registry ('C:\Users\mike/.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml')
Any changes in .vbox and .VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml didn't work so I:
- removed attached vdi to my virtualbox using VirtualBox Manager
- closed manager
- set new UUID to vdi with command

Code: Select all

VBoxManage.exe internalcommands sethduuid DevBox.vdi
- run manager and attach vdi to virtual machine
mpack
Site Moderator
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Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by mpack »

Your heart is no doubt in the right place, but sorry: that is a hack, not a solution, and it's a pretty good way of screwing up multiple VMs at once. UUIDs don't just change by themselves, so a solution would involve understanding why the UUID was incorrect, and fixing the problem at source.
jStewart913
Posts: 8
Joined: 11. Mar 2016, 06:18

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by jStewart913 »

I have the same problem and tried the same fix, the issue was originally caused by upgrading my host from window 7 to 10 and all of my VMs disappeared.

Later I discovered that you can simply double click on the .vbox files if they don't show up in the virtualbox client ... but before I learned about this, I had already tried a number of solutions to fix my VM and get my code and databases back. This was how my UUIDs got messed up.

While I do have a semi outdated code repository of the missing data on the VMs .. I use GIT and at the time of the VM failure, I was investigating a DNS issue causing me to be unable to push my repo to my offsite master repo. For these two reasons, I am desperately trying to get my data back from the VMs which now have mismatched UUIDs and will not start.

Most of the feedback I am getting now seems to indicate that my data is either unrecoverable or the experts simply don't have time to help me with the process. Being a software engineer for more than 30 years, I'm confident that if my product caused data loss of this magnitude, free or not, I would definitely help to rectify the situation.

Unfortunately, while virtualbox is absolutely great, with something so proprietary, it seems like there should be more robust recovery options. Had I known how volatile the VM file linking was for virtualbox I could have taken far more drastic disaster recovery measures or simply not used VMs at all.

I do understand that this software is free and there is probably no budget for fixing lost data, however .. while I would be willing to pay to recover my data, I find it quite unsettling that a technology with the tenancy to break and leave all of my efforts locked inside the VDI file, would not come with some robust recovery tools or at least a huge red banner on the download page indicating that so many unwitting users have lost data.

Please don't mistake this general commentary for me being ungrateful. Let me state again that virtualbox is an excellent technology. Unfortunately for some of us, it would have been nice to know how easily we could lose our data for good even after spending countless hours researching a solution unsuccessfully.
mpack
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Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by mpack »

This is a user forum: users helping other users. We have no control over what features the devs choose to put in the product, all we can do is advise each other on their usefulness, the risks, and how to mitigate them.

My personal opinion is that all media differencing schemes are a dangerous house of cards just begging for a disaster to knock a card over. I have warned about this on innumerable occasions since I joined in 2008, the discussions are all over this site. Plus I believe that a few seconds thought from anyone with an engineering mentality would tell that person that there's a dangerous lack of redundancy in differencing structures, so better not use them - or at least make frequent backups if the data is important.

VirtualBox is a tool. It's up to the wielder of the tool to learn how to use it properly - the information is readily available. If someone has important data, uses features without understanding or thinking about them, features that everyone tells him is dangerous (had he read the advice), and seldom makes backups.... well I'm afraid that I'm only human and my sympathy for such a person is somewhat limited. On the bright side at least it's a mistake you only make once.
bn.vb
Posts: 1
Joined: 20. May 2016, 09:08

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by bn.vb »

I wanted to share a virtualbox disk (vdi file) across two different PCs and I was getting this error. I have separate installations of OVB on both each machine.
I found a thread elsewhere which solved it by
- going to File, Virtual Media Manager,
- select the disk,
- Release,
- Remove,
- Close.

Then in the VirtualBox machine,
- add the disk back as the hard drive and
- load the machine.
This all worked for me.
jackinthebox
Posts: 1
Joined: 27. Jul 2016, 17:12

Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by jackinthebox »

I caused a similar problem for myself when I cloned a VM: Startup of the clone failed when VBox detected that its disk's UUID was not unique. I changed the disk's UUID using:

Code: Select all

C:> VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid mydisk.vmdk
<<returns the new uuid>>
but that's when the "UUID does not match the value in the registry" problem began.

I fixed the mismatch by editing two files to set the correct UUID [replacing the old/cloned UUID]:
  • 1. C:\Users\MyUserName\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml [2 places]
    2. C:\Users\MyUserName\Documents\VirtualBox VMs\UbuntuVM\UbuntuVM.vbox [2 places]
mpack
Site Moderator
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Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by mpack »

jackinthebox wrote:I caused a similar problem for myself when I cloned a VM: Startup of the clone failed when VBox detected that its disk's UUID was not unique.
Curious. VirtualBox has provided a VM cloning tool for several years now (implemented in v4.1.0, released in July 2011). Had you used it then there wouldn't be any need to hack UUIDs.
socratis
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Re: UUID does not match the value in the registry

Post by socratis »

Moving to "Using VirtualBox" since this has apparently nothing to do with OSX hosts, or any other host of guest for that matter.
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.
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