virtualbox.org

I noticed if I create a virtual guest machine (Windows / Linux / Other) and then delete the machine, I am unable to create a replacement guest machine by the same name because it never automatically removes the entrie in ~/.Virtualbox/HardDisks/server.vdi. I am unable to create a replacement guest with the identical name because it doesn't remove the .vdi file when I use the VirtualBox GUI to delete the guest machine.

Is there a fix for this w/o me having to annoyingly remove the .vdi file manually?

I believe that you need to open the media manager and remove it from there as well. It will ask if you want to delete it and if that is what you really want to do then say yes.

Yes indeed. That was the fix. I guess I assumed VirtualBox would do that automatically when you delete a guest in case we want to name the replacement identically.

It would be very inconvenient if deleting a vm automatically deleted its .vdi file. Even when you delete the entry from virtual media manager it asks before it deletes the .vdi file. There are many valid reasons for deleting a vm but retaining the virtual disk.

CarlosinFL wrote:I guess I assumed VirtualBox would do that automatically when you delete a guest

Deleting the VDI means potentially deleting years of someones work. This is not something that VirtualBox will do lightly, or in the background of some other task, or without asking lots of questions first.