virtualbox.org

Dell inspiron 531s
Windows XP Home SP3
Toshiba external drive

I am an intermediate user; so I may not have the correct understanding of proper procedures. Here is my situation: I am currently enrolled in an online training class where it has been recommended to perform exercises inside a VM to prevent harming the host OS. The Lady of the House is worried about disk space on the HDD. The HDD is 160GB with over 130GB free. Because some battles are better to avoid (even if you can win), I have attempted to install and run VirtualBox 4.0.0 on the external drive. I have installed XP using the OEM installation disk and received help from Microsoft to register it under the existing product key. I have also included all the upgrades for XP. I do not know whether or not I need to install the drivers as provided in another OEM disk. I have installed Firefox, Avast, and Malwarebytes and updated all of them.

I have encountered problems as follows:
1) received BSOD (blue screen) when attempting to access a preloaded MS game for trial purposes
2) received BSOD (blue screen) after downloading, updating, and running Malwarebytes -- no problems found, but exiting the program seemed to trigger the BSOD.
3) received BSOD (blue screen) when attempting to use System Restore to reset to an earlier date -- BSOD was upon reboot.
The errors were not the same for all three situations. Unfortunately I no longer have the error codes I wrote down. A drink got spilled on the paper and made the ink run.

I am wondering if my problems have arisen from the attempt to run from the external hard drive, failure to install drivers from the OEM disk, program conflicts, or other issues. Furthermore, I have attempted to upgrade to version 4.0.4 with the same results.

Any helpful guidance will be greatly appreciated, including instructions related to installing XP properly in the VM.

Thanks,
welpheas

I have heard that some OEM versions have been tied to the BIOS information of the PC they came with, and the OEM OS will go south if the BIOS info isn't what's been put on the CD. Since a Virtualbox VM (really, any VM) is essentially a different computer, with its own BIOS, the OEM OS might be hiccuping.

Try again. Start off with a fresh VM and a fresh install of the OEM OS. Don't activate it until you're certain it will work (If you do get it running, you have 30 days to test). Put all the software you want to run on it. See what happens.

The main danger when running off a VDI stored on an external drive is the obvious one of absent mindedly unplugging the drive while the VM is still running, with symptoms at best similar to a power cut.

welpheas wrote:I do not know whether or not I need to install the drivers as provided in another OEM disk

A VM is a separate PC in which all the hardware that the guest "sees" is actualled simulated by the VM software: so you dont need to install drivers for hardware that doesn't exist in the simulation. It is not relevant what physical hardware the host has - the host is an entirely different PC.

The game program no doubt crashed because it assumes the presence of hardware or features (DirectX 10 ?) that isn't part of the simulation. Other crashes, hard to say.

Remember to install the guest additions.

scottgus1 and mpack,

Thanks for your replies. Before I proceed with remove/install of VBox, I would like to give some observations. These observations and your replies have spawned a few additional questions. Please be patient with me. My knowledge base is not real deep, but I learn very fast. Additionally my internet connection is very slow. the installation of VBox, XP, SP3, and other MS updates takes about 4-1/2 hours. I wish to avoid needless repetition of these tasks.

Observations:

I explored the cracks and crannies of this machine and found some files/folders I did not create in C: drive. The VM is installed on the external drive (Z:).

In C:\Documents and Settings\myname\.VirtualBox there are two files named VirtualBox.xml and VirtualBox.xml-prev.

In C:\documents and Settings\myname\VirtualBox VMs\virtualXP there is a folder named Logs and two files named virtualXP.vbox-prev and virtualXP.vbox.

In Z:\myname\virtual box there is a VirtualBox VMs folder which contains a file named VirtualBox-4.0.0-69151.Win.exe.
and a folder named VirtualBox VMs. This folder contains a folder named VirtualXP (which is empty) and a file named VirtualXP.vdi (which I assume to be the guest machine).

Questions:

1) My chosen install location is the external (Z:) drive. The installer (or the program itself) created the folders/files I listed in my observations. Is this an indicator that VBox doesn't like being on the external drive?

2) When I uninstall VBox, should I use a utility like CCleaner or Revo to prevent leftovers or orphaned files and registry keys/values?

3) Will subsequent updated versions install seamlessly to the external drive, or will they require a reinstall of the guest OS?

4) A reread of the appropriate areas of the user's manual has brought a couple of questions to mind. Should "Snapshot" be used in lieu of "System Restore"? Could the attempted use of "System Restore" have created problems?

I will refer to your suggestions when I begin the task of creating a new VM.

Thanks for your continued support,
welpheas

EDIT: to correct typos I missed when previewing post.

There are essentially two parts that make up a virtual machine. One is the virtual hard disk, which is what you have on your external drive. The other is the machine configuration (which defines the "hardware" of the virtual machine), which installs in the user documents and settings by default.

If you still have the .vdi file on your external drive you can re-create your vm by creating a new XP vm and using the existing virtual hard disk rather than creating a new one. It will still have the OS and other updates you have installed (just as the HDD in your physical machine has these for your host OS).

There will always be some changes to the host OS when you install VirtualBox (or any other virtualization software), just as there are changes made when you install any other application software (such as Office).

Hi BillG,

Your suggestion to use the .vdi file to create a new VM brings questions to mind. Bear in mind that my knowledge base is not deep. I am using logic here to attempt to analyze the situation at hand and learn from my mistakes and the task ahead of me:

• Is it reasonable to believe that the problems I chronicled in a previous post point to potential problems in the existing VM as reflected in the .vdi file?
• If so, would I be using a damaged OS for the new VM and have the potential of repeated problems?
• If the new machine is going to be free of problems using the .vdi file, are instructions included in the user's manual? I have not found them yet. The manual is way over 200 pages long; so, I may have missed this part so far.

Thanks for your guidance and suggestions.
welpheas

There is really only one way to answer that question. Try it and see. If it fails, start from scratch.

If you don't want to try that method, then start from scratch in the first place.

Nobody can miraculously analyse your particular problems for you and give you a solution through a forum.

What I can say is that I have had no problems with storing a .vdi file on an external drive. It may be a bit slower, but none of the problems you describe.

Thanks BillG,

I'll give it a shot. I'll check out the user's manual for instructions. My best guess so far is something like mounting an image, but I will read more before beginning. The learning experience should be rewarding. Expect some feedback, hopefully about success.

Thanks to all,
welpheas