copy/clone .vdi's

[dmoore]

I have a few questions in regards to copy/cloneing .vdi's... but first, a little background.

Right now, I am preparing to switch from Windows XP MCE as my host OS to Fedora 10 and am in the process of backing up all of the files that I would like to keep, including my Windows Server 2K3 vdi and my Windows 7 vdi.

At first, I just tried to drag/drop the vdi's to my USB HDD, but that didn't work. I got an error saying my destination did not have enough hard drive space, which was false.

So, I discovered that I could use the clonehd command in the command console, which I am doing now. The real question that I have, is how do I find out what the UUID of a vdi is, that way, when I get VirtualBox up and running on Fedora 10, I can just clone the vdi's back.

Thanks!

-Dallas

[vbox4me2]

The UUID is not important, just use "vboxmanage internalcommands setvdiuuid" to change them, then add the vdi's to your vm's.

Your USB HDD is probably fat32 formatted, make that ntfs and you can drop vdi's on there larger then 4gb.

[cevherd]

My experience with either clonehd or internalcommands did not work?!

Host: Win XP Professional
Guest: Red Hat Linux Enterprise 4

Here are the two methods I have used:

1)

Code: Select all

D:\vbox\HardDisks>vboxmanage clonehd SDM_RHL4_TEST.vdi Cloned_403_SDM.vdi
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Clone hard disk created in format 'VDI'. UUID: 18518ef5-e98b-4de5-862d-cf428ff3ed8e

2)

Code: Select all

D:\vbox\HardDisks>copy Master.vdi Clone.vdi
D:\vbox\HardDisks>VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid cloned.vdi
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

UUID changed to: 4a0ba616-b75a-4b86-a8a6-4f3c69721425

Starting guest either at GRUB: Or at Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

Anybody knows how to solve this problem?

Thanks!

[vbox4me2]

Just copy the VDI file "copy /b ...." and then manually change the UUID.

[Sasquatch]

My experience with either clonehd or internalcommands did not work?!

Host: Win XP Professional
Guest: Red Hat Linux Enterprise 4

Here are the two methods I have used:

1)
D:\vbox\HardDisks>vboxmanage clonehd SDM_RHL4_TEST.vdi Cloned_403_SDM.vdi
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
Clone hard disk created in format 'VDI'. UUID: 18518ef5-e98b-4de5-862d-cf428ff3ed8e

2)
D:\vbox\HardDisks>copy Master.vdi Clone.vdi
D:\vbox\HardDisks>VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid cloned.vdi
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.1.0
(C) 2005-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

UUID changed to: 4a0ba616-b75a-4b86-a8a6-4f3c69721425

Starting guest either at GRUB: Or at Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

Anybody knows how to solve this problem?

Thanks!

Your problem might be different. This can occur in a VM, but also on bare hardware. And somehow, Linux Guests can detect the UUID file change and it triggers a filesystem UUID change too.

[cevherd]

Sasquatch:
I don't know what you mean it might be different on Linux guests, all I can tell is that there is a problem in what is documented as "the procedure to clone VDI" and what could/might work...

I tried vbox4me2's recommendation with /b (on a VDI without a snapshot, my earlier trial/failure was on vdi WITH SNAPSHOTS which I now know that MIGHT not work at all?!!

after copy /b and manually generating the UUID:
J:\>"C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vboxmanage.exe" internalcommands setvdiuuid C:\.VirtualBox\HardDrives\aaa_clon
ed_2.vdi

This worked very well!!! Thanks vbox4me2! I should try this on a VDI with snapshot sometimes next week since this is the feature I am looking to use.