delete 'VirtualBox.xml' and rename 'VirtualBox.xml-prev' to 'VirtualBox.xml'.
If you don't find 'VirtualBox.xml-prev', then delete 'VirtualBox.xml' and start Virtualbox. Your guest list will be empty, but the guests will still be available. Find each guest's .vbox file using the Machine menu, Add.. and the guests will be re-registered. You may need to reset any global settings you changed in File menu, Preferences
but i did not able to get how to find each guest.box files? where are they located?
By default they are located in C:\Users\your username\VirtualBox VMs. If yours are somewhere else, that is because you asked VirtualBox to put them somewhere else. You would be the only person with any idea where that was.
VMFiles.PNG (31.94 KiB) Viewed 2802 times
What drive in your PC is F: ? Is it a removable drive? Is there anything in that drive?
and even my winxp running good and there is no folder in f:\winxp , you can see it on my first screen
why i choose it as this drive is almost empty so i choose to create it so i got space , it happen few month agoo
I would very thankful if you can tell me a way to restore it
or
even i i cannot restore it, actually i pasted few files in c:\myfolder under virtual box winxp (you can assume it like some excel files) and i just want to get them back, is there any way i can get them from my windows 10 some how? if so event htat can resolve my issue so any way to get files i copied to my virtual winxp machine ?
There is no way of copying the files from your XP vm until you find where its virtual disk is stored. It should be called winxp.vdi .
Search Windows for any .vdi files (ie search *.vdi) . If none are found, there is no hope of recovering files. If I do it on my machine, it files all the .vdi files for my vms.
Last edited by BillG on 21. Jun 2021, 09:57, edited 1 time in total.
Sorry, but no-one here can tell you where you put your files on your PC. Try the Windows search function.
VirtualBox VMs use "virtual drives". These are "images" of actual drives. Various image formats are supported, but the main one is VDI. In order to access files in a VDI file you typically mount it in a VM - though of course there are third party tools that can inspect the contents, such as 7-zip. But of course: you have to find the VDI first, there is no substitute for that.
No, I'm afraid that looking at the screenshot for the manager folder will not tell me where a VM stores its files.
The error message tells you that the VM folder is "F:\WinXP\WinXP". Normally the VDI would be located in there too. I can't tell you much more than that. I assume that "F:" is a removable drive which is not currently plugged it, or else Windows has assigned a new drive letter to it.
"F:\WinXP\WinXP" is where the VM was located when it was first registered or created. If the VM has since moved location then you need to unregister the dead VM and re-register the .vbox file in the new location.
Do you read the replies you get? Do you ever try any of the things we suggest? For instance, did you ever use Windows search to find what .vdi files exist on your PC?