virtualbox.org

Hello,

I need to work on the same virtual disk from 4 different PCs. Since the disk is rather large, copying it in a USB stick takes a lot of time. So I thought that the best approach would be to have a copy of the virtual hard disk on each PC, then create a snapshot and just keep transfering the snapshot file from PC to PC, simply overwriting the older snapshot in each PC. From time to time I will delete the snapshots and update the "base" virtual hard disk. Would you say that this is the best way to achieve what I am trying to do ?

I saw someone suggesting that for such a task one should create a new machine, using as hard disk the snapshot of the main harddisk itself. Is there any merit in this ?

Thank you.

As long as the base disk is write protected, and the media registry on each PC has been hacked to expect your snapshot UUID, then it should work. You would need to know what you are doing, and of course can expect little support or sympathy if you mess up. Personally I would go with the less lazy, more robust option if at all possible - how long does it actually take to copy a typical plain VDI to an external USB drive?

I've been testing it and it's working ok: I'm just copying the snapshot from PC to PC. Copying the whole disk to a USB drive does take some time, but this was not the main problem: My disk was already 10 GB and if I keep working on it it will soon exceed the 16BG capacity of the USB stick, not to mention that it will be taking longer and longer to copy.