Uninstalling Windows guest and recovering all the space etc.

[Joni123]

So I failed to install the Windows XP and wanted to uninstall the partition named "Windows XP Home (32-bit)" that I had just created. I gave it 512 RAM and 10GB HDD space. I uninstalled the guest by right clicking the guest slot i created and choosing the option "remove". It asked me if I wanted to delete all the possible files in the virtual machine and I clicked the option "clear all files". Now in the library there is nothing in the Virtualbox VMs folder nor is there any files in the actual Virtualbox folder except some text files like Virtualbox.xml and
xpti.dat.
Is there anything more I should remove before I get all the performance and space back to my host OS. I just want to get completely rid of the Windows partition, like if I never even tried to install it.

Possibly a nice little tutorial to uninstall VirtualBox would be nice too.

Thank you!

[novafluxx]

Not sure what you mean about the partition. Did you create a new partition explicitly for your guest OS? The normal guest creation process will guide you through creating a virtual hard drive that is contained in a file on the host OS file system.

To remove, re-run the installation pkg file.

[Joni123]

Well maybe the partition wasnt the right word. No I didnt create any "partitions" like in bootcamp. I just created the slot thingy by pressing that blue star - like button titled "new" in the Virtualbox main menu. Then I put the Windows installation disc in the drive and launched the Virtual Machine. In other words, I created a virtual hard drive that stayed empty, since I failed to install my Windows XP for some reason.

Anyway, I right clicked the virtual hard drive icon in the Virtualbox main menu and chose the option "remove". Then I just clicked "clear all files".
Is this the right way to completely delete that virtual hard drive and everything in it, so that my host OS could get back all the HDD space and video RAM that I gave to the virtual machine?

I dont want some empty virtual hard drive to eat up any performance out of my Macbook Pro. I hope that you understood what Im trying to say.

PS: I have the Oracle version of the VB downloaded from the main site from Mac OS X link (or something)

[Sasquatch]

Only way to know if you did the right thing is to check the disk usage before and after your action. If that changed for the better, then you were successful. If it didn't change, then you need to see if the file is still noted in the Media Manager, but since you told VB to remove all related files, it shouldn't be there and your disk space is restored.

[238]

Funny how Oracle is ignoring this issue. Same problem - created a virtual machine and virtual disc of 25GB for windows7. After I realized I didn't really like the VM, I decided to remove the virtual machine and virtual disc. I selected remove and chose to delete all files associated. My harddrive did not get the 25 GB back. Before I created the virtual disc, I had more than 200 GB on my SSD. After removeing/deleting the virtual disc, I had around 170 GB. The space is just gone. I had to reinstall OSX.

[mpack]

No, Oracle is not ignoring this issue, because the issue doesn't exist. The only issue that does exist is Mac users who don't understand how to fully delete files in the Mac OS, and that is not an issue for a VirtualBox forum.

[loukingjr]

I tried explaining this in another post but here goes. If you have Time Machine enabled and Time Machine can't reach the backup disk assigned to it, Time Machine will cache the files to the internal hard drive. That means if it backs up the .vdi file VirtualBox wouldn't know about it. The easiest thing to do would be to do a file search for any file over 9 GB and see if it finds anything.

edit: some further info which has to do with SSD drives...

Basically, every time data has to be written to the hard drive, it creates a new block, this why actual data written can be vastly different from how many blocks are being used up on the disk. Blocks can only be overwritten if they are completely removed and then remade, which forces the SSD to rewrite all of the information in a block. Which means when you created the .vdi file there were however many blocks created. When the file was "erased" the blocks that were assigned were not removed and remade. The reason reinstalling the OS gets the space back as user 238 found out was because it completely removes and remakes the blocks. It is not a VirtualBox issue as mpack said.

Another possibility is, if you have your Mac set to Hibernate there will be a large number of files cached to the drive.

@mpack, as far as "the only issue that does exist is Mac users who don't understand how to fully delete files in the Mac OS" is concerned, it is an SSD issue on how it works and is not a Mac user issue.

p.s. I knew nothing of SSD drives off the top of my head. I did a search for "missing space on SSD drives" and found multiple links.

[mpack]

The issue being discussed is a Mac hosts usability issue, not a VirtualBox issue. Also, I'm not aware of a general problem on SSD drives where deleting a file does not release space, the question asked in this thread. If you are going to assert something like that then please provide a reference.

[loukingjr]

The issue being discussed is a Mac hosts usability issue, not a VirtualBox issue. Also, I'm not aware of a general problem on SSD drives where deleting a file does not release space, the question asked in this thread. If you are going to assert something like that then please provide a reference.

I specifically said the problem is NOT a VirtualBox problem as you pointed out,( I highlighted the portion where I pointed that out). And it's not a Mac Problem. It is an issue for SSD drives that as the Google search link below shows has been ongoing for at least 3 years.
Missing Space On SSD drives... Link

[noteirak]

I think we all agree that this is not a Virtualbox problem and as such, will not be discussed on this forum.
I will now close this topic, since all has been discussed.