Windows XP problem

[dinospages]

Hi people I need help with my virtualbox.

For start: My English is not very good, so I beg you for your understanding.

I have a virtual box installed on the MAC OS X 10.6.8. I have two quests systems (WinXP and Win7).

I have a problem with WinXP. I can not run the system writes me this error:
"
Hard disk '/Users/libortonar/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/Snapshots/{df0dc460-c9cd-48e2-9654-9ec8186f92b4}.vdi' with UUID {df0dc460-c9cd-48e2-9654-9ec8186f92b4} cannot be directly attached to the virtual machine 'WinXP' ('/Users/libortonar/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/WinXP/WinXP.xml') because it has 1 differencing child hard disks.
Návratový kód:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Komponenta:
Machine
Rozhraní:
IMachine {5eaa9319-62fc-4b0a-843c-0cb1940f8a91}
"

[dinospages]

Hello, pls can you help me ???

[Perryg]

Do you know what happened between the time it did work and now?
From the looks of it the snapshot was either deleted or you are trying to attach something that was not created by the guest.

[dinospages]

I look on the snapshot because my harddisk space was to low, i move snapshot to another directory (i don't delete it) and winXP cant run. I put the snapshot back and winXP run correctly. After two or three days winXP cant run, i dont any changes.

My snapshots take over 100GB space on harddrive. How can I reduce it, when we fix it?

[Perryg]

You can't just move snapshots around like that. It will mess up the guest.

It sounds like you either have a corrupt snapshot now or you may have a bad pointer. The easiest way to fix this is to try to clone the last snapshot using CloneVDI Tool Instructions are on the first page of the topic. It requires wine if not used on Windows.

Other than that I don't know what to do. Make sure you have enough space to do this before you start.

[mpack]

The error message given does not seem to be consistent with the discussion. As far as I know you could only get that error message when creating a new VM or adding a disk to a VM. As far as I know it's not the kind of error you would get when launching a VM.

To get rid of the snapshots you have to do as Perry said: use CloneVDI. Make sure you have plenty of free disk space, then clone the most recent snapshot file from the "Snapshots" subfolder (do not make the mistake of only cloning the base VDI). You must then build a new VM around the clone VDI - you cannot mount it in the original VM, because the original VM will still have a memory of messed up snapshot structures.

[dinospages]

Hi can i use your program, when i have mac os X ? In the link you wrote about Win systems??

I have mac os x and in this system i have installed virtualbox (in the virtualbox i have quest WinXP)

[mpack]

I'll modify what I said earlier, in the light of the inconsistent error reporting. I would first try cloning the VM using VirtualBox (v4.1.x or later) first - just to see if it lets you. Right click on the VM entry in the VirtualBox GUI and select "Clone". Make sure you make a full (not linked) clone of the current VM state only (i.e. do not preserve the snapshot structure).

If that fails then you can try CloneVDI, which will work under Wine/WineBottler on a Mac OS X host. See the discussion of that here.

[dinospages]

The CloneDVI wrote:

"Source is a difference image. Sorry, this tool cannot clone these (for now)"

I try it shortly i have some work, which i must do. When i try it better i wrote the situation.

thanks

[mpack]

That error message means that CloneVDI was unable to completely resolve the snapshot chain, which probably means some needed files were not found.

CloneVDI only looks in the current folder for VDI files, and if the current folder is called "Snapshots" then it also looks in the parent folder. If needed VDI files are stored anywhere else then they will not be found.

To be completely sure this isn't the problem, copy all related VDI files into a single folder and try CloneVDI again.

[dinospages]

Hi thanks for reply,

i attached a screenshot of my vdi files. When i choose vdi "WinXP.vdi" in directory Harddisks clone running correctly. Is this the good way?

screenshot

picture1.jpg (105.41 KiB) Viewed 2788 times

[mpack]

No, that's the wrong way. As I said in my first post in this thread, you must clone the latest snapshot file, not the base VDI as you are doing in the screenshot.

Copy all snapshot files, and the base VDI, into one folder. Then clone the snapshot file which has the most recent creation date. The result is a merged VDI which you can build a new VM around.

[dinospages]

OK,

now wrote another error "not enough space"

I have 30GB avalaibe and i think that need 50 GB, but i cant delete any files because i need it.

Can i delete older snapshoots ?
forexample vdi file: 2e...75.vdi 48 GB create 17.12.2011

[mpack]

No, you can't delete snapshots. The entire chain is needed to recreate the latest state. You can however create the clone VDI on another drive (e.g. an external drive). Likewise the related collection of VDI files can be on another drive - or even another PC.

Only once you have built and tested a new VM based on the clone VDI would you be able to delete the old VM in safety. If I was you I would find a way to make room, even if it's only temporary.


ps. Be sure to turn on the "Compact" option in CloneVDI. The clone process should go faster and the resulting VDI should be smaller: and so will the required disk space.

[dinospages]

thanks, today evening i will do it on external drive