moving Windows guest between different host OS

[AML]

Hello All,

Can one easily move a Windows VirtualBox guest that was originally created on a Mac OS X host .... over to a Windows 7 host? Is it just a matter of copying over the VM and "adding" it to VirtualBox on Windows 7? Or is the process more involved? If so, is there any documentation one can reference?

Thanks in advance ...

[Perryg]

Depends on what version of VirtualBox the guest was created with. If >=4.* all you should need to do is copy the entire folder that holds the guest and its control file to the other machine and the add it. If the difference is hardware is not too far off it should just work.

[mpack]

It's usually possible, there are lots of ways to do it. The choice of best way depends on which version of VirtualBox created the VM (v4.x VMs are more portable). The version of Windows used is also important, as is whether you used snapshots or not (hopefully not).

Taking a specific example: let's say an XP VM which does not use snapshots, then the easiest thing is just to copy the VDI file, and build a new VM around it on the target host, being sure to get all the hardware selections the same.

Give more details of the problem and I can provide more details on the solution.

[AML]

Hi All,

thanks for the replies !

I am running VirtualBox 4.1.8 on Mac OS X Lion (10.7.4) running on an i5 (2.66GHz quad core chip) Intel based iMac . My target host OS is Windows 7 SP1 running on an HP Pavilion using an i5 chip as well and using VirtualBox 4.1.8 as well. The GuestOS itself is WinXP SP3. Snapshots were never taken/used.

So this sounds pretty straight forward then ... just copying over the .VDI and creating a new guest config using VirtualBox on Win7. Any obvious gotcha's given the above ?

Thanks in advance,
Will

[Perryg]

If you read my post a little closer you may find it useful. You should not need to create the guest at all. Just add it to the VirtualBox Main Manager.
Under the Machine tab in the VMM you should see Add. then drill to the folder that you copied (not just the *.VDI) and select the *.vbox file.
If it is going to work it will. Gotcha's? No one can tell. If it doesn't work then you have lost noting but some time.