unable to open virtualbox 4.1.4

[lethal42]

Hi Guys,

Just registereed for the forum and picked up a couple of issues there. It does not recognise 4.1.4 as the latest version. Further it makes one choose a version and choose btwn 'OSE' (Im assuming that what it is) concernfng OSE., whatever that is...anyhoo that for the modertaors.

Just downloaded the latest version of virtualbox, havent used for a few weeks and came accross two errors thijs lay person does understand what to do with.
The first talks about one or more virtual hard disks not being accessible...and the option to click 'check' or 'ignore'. After clicking 'check' it shows what it calls (I may have prev called) 'xp home sp3.vdi' as this non-accessible disk.
What do I do now?
I am using this on a Win 7 64 machine , for a win xp enviromnent.

Further form this when I 'close' this 'panel', it states it 'failed to open a session for virtualbox 'windows home sp3...no error info'. I am guessing these issues are linked?

What happened in the upgrade?

Would have added attacchments however these were not alloowed im either in rtf (soze), doc or docx format.

Appreciate any advise around this (again) in lay terms.

cheers

Lethal42

[BillG]

The .vdi file is the virtual hard disk for your virtual machine. If it is not accessible, your vm will not boot (just as a physical machine will not boot without its hard drive). Do you have any of your physical disks offline? Do you have an external drive which is not connected? Can Windows search find any .vdi files on your system?

[lethal42]

Hi, thanks for the response.

A search can find no .vdi files on my system.
This is with all external drives connected and open.
(previously I wasnt aware the esxternal drives were an issue, as virtualbox is installed on my internal 'c' drive).

Looking forward to your advises.

regards

lethal42

[mpack]

"VDI file inaccessible" means exactly what it says. It means that the VDI file, created to store the hard disk data of a VM, no longer exist in the same place it did. Hence that file has either been deleted or renamed or was located on an external drive which has since been unplugged or which now has a different drive letter.

[lethal42]

Thanks mpack, so if I uninstall and reinstall...it should address this?

Funny that this error only occured once I upgraded to the latest version....

regards

Lethal42

[mpack]

Uninstalling and reinstalling VirtualBox will not help. The only thing that will help is restoring the missing VDI file to its expected location, or correcting the broken link to point to the new location. Or, scrap that VM and create a new one.

[lethal42]

Thanks again for the advise mpack.
Can you please point me to a link that will explain clearly what is required to remove the 'vm' and create another?

regards

Lethal42

[lethal42]

Hi mpack,
I am muddling thru this (having to reinstall xp on the vm). It appears the old installation (I will call it that) was looking for the xp system disk on my dvd/cd drive. Why it would do this well after inital installation and running, I do not understand.
Will let you know how I go.

thanks

lethal42

[lethal42]

Hi,

I am now running xp sp2 as i needed to in my virutalbox environment/application,....this was rather a tetsing process, espec with all the IE crashes etc in trying to update my version of xp (to the state I needed it).

The main point of my doing this is to be able to download/install some firmware and driver on an mp3 player, which I have now downloaded only the vm wont recognise that the player is connected.
(like the win 7, non-vm does)

Can you kindly provide some advise around this, it has certainly been a learning process and for that and any advise I am grateful.
Though i am still not sure what happened to my first vm...was it a file that was deleted, or similar perhaps?

regards

Lethal42

[mpack]

Please ask new questions in a new thread, with an appropriate title. And please search before asking.

[lethal42]

Of course, thanks mpack, though related it was a seperate issue.

(no results to search btw...termionology dependent I suppose)

cheers

Lethal42

[lethal42]

Hi,
The main reason for this post was an inaccessible vdi file. discovered upon upgrading.
A file became corrupt and I had to configure the installation of vb and win xp all over again.

I note that now there is another version of virtualbox available.

As it is current operating (well) under older version 4.1.4, is there a way i can secure/save/backup (?) relevant files, to stop this happening again...

thanks guys

regards

Lethal42

[mpack]

A full backup would require that you back up your VM folders (stored in "VirtualBox VMs" by default - you may have chose somewhere else in preferences), plus the "VirtualBox.xml" file from the "<userdoc>\.VirtualBox" folder. The details depend on your host OS.

I should say however that your earlier problem had nothing to do with updating virtualbox. A virtual drive being inaccessible has the causes already discussed above.

[lethal42]

Thanks again mPack.

I have certianly done regulart back ups, and will review the 'xml' files location.

Reading back over the post, I was of the undertsanding that the prior upgrade highlighted the issue that had arisen.
So indeed it had nothing directly to do with it, however VB was operating fine on the prior instance of it running (prior to the upgrade).

cheers

Lethal42