VirtualBox and Dropbox

[ccaspell]

I require windows for a couple of programs that are not available on the Mac (and don't run on Wine) and so I a virtualisation seemed in order. I need to have windows at my home and on my laptop but I never need to use them at the same time and there will always be sufficient time between one machine being updated and the other downloading the updates so no issues of partial updates. I am the only person that will ever use this so there is not going to be a problem with the same installation being opened in more than one place.

Placing the HDD image into Dropbox seemed to not cause any problems and the first time I opened the image on the laptop all was well with all the updates and installations in place. I have since then installed some programs onto the main installation but when I try to open the windows installation on the laptop the updates that I have done on the main machine have not been updated on the dropbox version.

Looking at /Users/MyName/VirtualBox VMs/WindowsXP on the main machine I see there is a Snapshots folder together with a Logs folder, WindowsXPvbox and WindowsXP.vbox-prev (which looks to be the settings file). I see the MediaRegistry (Lines 6-8 in the settings file) points to both the HDD on dropbox and the snapshots folder, so am I correct in my thinking that Virtualbox starts with a virtual HDD and then appends the changes by using snapshots? If that is the case if I move the entire Virtual Box VMs/WindowsXP directory to Dropbox and then modify the settings file to point the HardDisk uuid to the Snapshots folder in Dropbox will I be able to see the same Windows installation on my home machine and my laptop? Also is there any point in time when the original installation is updated with the snapshots?

Perhaps I am going about this the wrong way, so if there is an easier way that I can install my WindowsXP installation into Dropbox I would really like to hear about it.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

[mpack]

so am I correct in my thinking that Virtualbox starts with a virtual HDD and then appends the changes by using snapshots?

No, that is not correct. VirtualBox will only create a snapshot if you tell it to - meaning it was presumably you who told it to freeze the current drive contents and direct all future writes to a change file.

You can try deleting the snapshot (using the GUI snapshots interface), which should leave you with one flat file again.