How to backup my whole VM properly ?

[Hisham]

Hello,

I've several VMs where all of them running Linux Mint as guest and I'm running Windows 10 as host.

I'm running the latest version of virtualbox and would like to know the proper way to backup my whole VM on my portable ssd.

Thanks.

[scottgus1]

The best way to back up a VM: shut the VM down completely from within the VM's OS (not saved state). Then copy the whole VM folder, and any disk files placed outside the VM's folder.

Running backups of a live VM should be done with inside-the-VM-OS 3rd-party live backup software, saving to another host or network disk through a real non-Virtualbox-provided shared folder.

Do not rely on any backup "routine" that involves taking a snapshot. Such a snapshotted backup is ultimately of a VM that acts upon restore as if the power had been unplugged on the OS, with dirty and lost data.

[Hisham]

Thank you so much for your reply.

This helped me a lot.