CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

[mpack]

You're welcome.

[l2g]

You Rock man!
Wish I had landed here much sooner, digging how to rescue a corrupted vdi (VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR).

Hope you expand on it and make other despaired people happy again.

[mpack]

In this case the error code VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR is a bit generic, the error message is usually more descriptive and would give you an idea if CloneVDI is likely to be able to repair it (e.g. "file not found" would mean no repair is possible, "could not get storage format" means that it is). I assume you had a form of damage that was repairable - and it succeeded? Well done if so.

[wmeyer]

Been using your CloneVDI for years, happy as a clam. Now I am presented with a VMware VM in which Windows 10 is the OS. The VM was created with VMware Workstation Pro 14. I follow my usual routine with CloneVDI, and after some considerable time, I have a VDI file which unfortunately displays a boot error in VirtualBox.

Not having had any similar adventures in years (you made this too easy, mpack), I am stumped.

[mpack]

Without details of the boot error I can't be sure, but my guess is that the VM uses EFI with GPT partitions. The next release of CloneVDI will support GPT, but that change has a large impact so I'd like more testing time.

If it is GPT then resizing the disk probably won't work reliably because GPT hides info at the end of the drive, which is no longer the end of the drive after the resize.

[wmeyer]

The message is: FATAL: INT18: BOOT FAILURE

I understand your concern for testing. I can muddle along with VMware.

[mpack]

What did you mean by "usual procedures"? Presumably you were converting a VMDK to VDI, but were you also resizing? Was compaction enabled? Either of those would probably kill a GPT drive. Straight conversion to VDI should work I think.

[wmeyer]

VMDK to VDI, but yes, with compaction. Will try it without. Thanks.

P.S. Though I overlooked it before, CloneVDI reports the file system as Unknown (ee).

UPDATE: CloneVDI: VMDK --> VDI, no compact, simple conversion. VDI will not boot. Same error as before.

[mpack]

A partition type code of 0xEE does indicate a GPT partition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_type

I confess that I don't understand why simple cloning of the drive wouldn't work - in that case the entire disk surface should be identical. I wonder if your error is caused by a UUID change? Perhaps you could try "Keep UUID", though that isn't always reliable when cloning VMDK - the UUID is optional in a VMDK not created by VirtualBox, and if it isn't defined then CloneVDI is forced to allocate one since it isn't optional in VDI.

[Tki2000]

CloneVDI CLI mode is broken in 3.0.1

If I try to start the tool from command line for compacting automation, it displays some windows showing the arguments passed to the application (some kind of debugging, I suppose). So I have to press the OK button on every window for every argument, to actually start the tool. It is useless for automation, as it waits for user input.
I have not tried to automate older versions, as I need the EXT4 compact feature on this version.

Please, mpack, could you fix the issue, so the tool starts without user input, from command line?

[mpack]

Yes, I do dimly remember noticing and removing that, however nobody else has noticed until now, which I guess indicates how often the feature is used.

I've just updated the attachment in the root message to 3.02, so give it a try. This was just a tweak to the 3.01 sources, there are no new features.

[Tki2000]

Thank you, mpack!
It is working fine now.
I use the command line to compact VDIs just before backing them up in archives. Sometimes I gain more than 80% of size, and it's not the same to compress a 32GB file than a 4GB file (in time and results). Temporary files are deleted from VMs, then free space in image is zeroed with cloneVDI, archived and mirrored on a remote server. Just a backup strategy.
Thank you for your quick response.

[mpack]

Thanks for confirming the fix. In that case I'd better announce it formally:-

NEW VERSION RELEASED - v3.02 (see root message for download link).

Minor bugfix as discussed in the three posts before this one.

[Turbodid]

I have just downloaded CloneVDI

I enter the following command:

CloneVDI.exe "E:\VM\La poste - KAORA - Sysperiane\Clone de VM Divalto Démo - X.1 - V39-disk1.vdi" "E:\VM\La poste - KAORA - Sysperiane\Clone de VM Divalto Démo - X.1 - V39-disk1-new.vdi"

nothing happens !!!!
No message!!

Why??

Thanks

Didier

[mpack]

I do not recognize that command, so I'm not surprised that the software didn't either. Please read the documentation that comes with the software, or type "CloneVDI --help" at the command line, or better yet just use the CloneVDI GUI, as that's what it's there for.

I would suggest that if all you want is a command line tool that makes basic VDI clones then you should perhaps stick to using VBoxManage.