Clone or Duplicate a image (vdi)

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
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stephbar37
Posts: 2
Joined: 24. Jan 2009, 10:50

Clone or Duplicate a image (vdi)

Post by stephbar37 »

Hi,

I use Virtual box on my mac OS.

I'v made a image that i would like to duplicate. Is it possible ?

Thanks
tkwm
Volunteer
Posts: 147
Joined: 3. Mar 2008, 17:56

Post by tkwm »

If you simply want to keep a backup of your virtual disc you can use the finder to duplicate or copy it. If you use TimeMachine, you already have at least one copy on your TimeMachine-volume.
If you need a copy of your virtual disc to mount it to another virtual machine on the same computer, you have to use the clone-command, described somewhere in the user-manual. The cloned virtual-disc will get another disc-id that differs from the the original virtual-disc. You can't mount a virtual-disc with the same disc-id to different vm's on the same computer at the same time.
stephbar37
Posts: 2
Joined: 24. Jan 2009, 10:50

Post by stephbar37 »

Thanks,

I found a command to put in the terminal:
vboxmanage clonevdi source.vdi destination.vdi

Thanks to this, it is possible to duplicate an image to use in Virtual box
gp007
Posts: 2
Joined: 1. Feb 2009, 03:24

Post by gp007 »

tkwm wrote:If you simply want to keep a backup of your virtual disc you can use the finder to duplicate or copy it. If you use TimeMachine, you already have at least one copy on your TimeMachine-volume.
If you need a copy of your virtual disc to mount it to another virtual machine on the same computer, you have to use the clone-command, described somewhere in the user-manual. The cloned virtual-disc will get another disc-id that differs from the the original virtual-disc. You can't mount a virtual-disc with the same disc-id to different vm's on the same computer at the same time.
Hi tkwm - I haven't installed Virtualbox on our macbook pro yet - thought I would do some investigating and reading first :)

I was wondering about two things (one I think you've answered above):

1. Once I install Virtualbox and create a single virtual disc with Windows XP Pro, can I simply copy that virtual disc to a safe place and at any time in the future trash the one on my computer and replace it with the original copied version?

2. Is it at all possible to create a virtual disc on one mac and transfer it to another without any adjustments required?

Thanks for any help
tkwm
Volunteer
Posts: 147
Joined: 3. Mar 2008, 17:56

Post by tkwm »

Hi gp007,
1. Once I install Virtualbox and create a single virtual disc with Windows XP Pro, can I simply copy that virtual disc to a safe place and at any time in the future trash the one on my computer and replace it with the original copied version?
Yes. And if you use TimeMachine, it does it for you, even several versions of the virtualdisc.
2. Is it at all possible to create a virtual disc on one mac and transfer it to another without any adjustments required?
From one Mac to another should be no problem, if it is the same virtualbox-version, the same vm-settings, and if the underlaying (the mac) hardware is not to different. But I never have tried this by myself. As far as I remember some people had trouble in transfering the virtual-machine from one architecture to another, i.g. from Mac to Linux, but here in the forum are also hints to solve this.

From the mac point-of-view, the virtual-disc is one big file, and you can do everything with it, that the finder will do, copy, duplicate, move, even delete it.
gp007
Posts: 2
Joined: 1. Feb 2009, 03:24

Post by gp007 »

Fantastic - thanks for the quick response. I'll download it and give it a go. I installed Parallels late last year which worked well, so I'll compare it with that.
tkwm
Volunteer
Posts: 147
Joined: 3. Mar 2008, 17:56

Post by tkwm »

hi gp007,

for Parallels the last sentence is also true.

I found that parallels does some things that virtualbox until today can't.

For example using an older synchronisation-software to synchronize my nokia-cellphone via usb, parallels does it virtualbox not.

But virtualbox is free, there exists also an open-source version and it is said that the support for non-Windows OSs is better.

My first experience with a virtualiser years ago on a PowerMac 7200 I made with VirtualPC, which was, as far as I know, developed by Innotek, and that is also the company that developed virtual-box.
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