Failed to attach the hard disk (...) to the slot SATA Port

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 2. Aug 2012, 09:07

Story:
I had VirtualBox 4.1.12 installed on a Windows 7 Ultimate x32 netbook.
I downloaded a VM zip and extracted it (Ubuntu).
I ran VirtualBox to create the virtual machine and then launched the VM.
Everything ran fine until I decided to Power Off the VM without first shutting it down.

Ever since then, I cannot get the VM to work.
Specifically I am getting this error:

Failed to attach the hard disk (...) to the SATA Port 0 of the machine.

I have tried removing the VM, deleting the VM, rebooting, uninstalling Virtual Box 4.1.12, reinstalling VirtualBox 4.1.18. Nothing will work!

Please help.

Post by **mpack** » 2. Aug 2012, 11:35

Post the VM log file of a failed session - post it as a zipped attachment please.

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 2. Aug 2012, 16:21

Log files attached...

Post by **mpack** » 2. Aug 2012, 17:48

You posted the service logs. I want the VBox.log (Logs subfolder of VM folder), and I'm only interested in the latest copy, not the numbered backups.

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 3. Aug 2012, 09:20

There is no such folder for my VM, where my VDI is located.

I do have a folder at $HOME/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu/Logs etc but they relate to a different time and instance when I tried to load Ubuntu and are not related to this VDI despite both being Ubuntu guests. All the files in that folder are dated April 2012.

Where else should I look?

Thanks

Post by **mpack** » 3. Aug 2012, 12:02

If the VM was created by VBox v4.x then there is a vm folder, inside of which is a Logs subfolder.

If the VM was created by VBox v3.x or earlier than the VM folder is in <userdoc>\.VirtualBox\Machines\<vmname>, and the "Logs" subfolder is inside that.

If you manually copied a VM folder between hosts without understanding the folder structure then there's no telling what you have. V3 VM folders are in general not portable. You should clone them first on the original PC, assuming it's running VBox v4.1.0 or later. The clone will have the V4 structure, which is more portable.

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 3. Aug 2012, 13:32

But now the VM has been deleted and cannot be recreated because of the error message.

Perhaps that is why there is no VM folder?

The original VM (since deleted) was created by VBox 4.1.12.

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 3. Aug 2012, 13:40

By the way, I have not manipulated the VM folder structure in any way other than uninstalling the v4.1.12 and installing v4.1.18.

Also, the VDI is on a separate drive to the $HOME directory. I wouldn't expect this to be significant but thought I'd offer up the information.

J.

Post by **mpack** » 3. Aug 2012, 14:41

Perhaps simply haven't installed the VM properly yet. If it came as a zipped appliance then of course you start by unzipping it. If the contents include an OVA or OVF file then this an appliance which needs to be imported. Otherwise if it's a VirtualBox VM (.vbox) then use Machine|Add to register it. If it's a VMWare VM then you'll need to build a new VM around the VMDK (and it may not work).

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 3. Aug 2012, 15:06

But I'm not doing anything different from the 1st time, when it worked.

So what's the difference the 2nd and subsequent times? The ZIP extracts to a VDI file. When I try to create a VM from it, using VBox I get the error. I don't have the netbook with me today, but I'll post images of what I'm trying to do and maybe you can show me where I'm going wrong.

J.

Post by **mpack** » 3. Aug 2012, 15:20

Well, sans logs there is little I can add to what has already been said above. The error itself means that the VM has not been created probably, most likely the path to the VDI is wrong, or not set at all.

j0mi · Post by **j0mi** » 5. Aug 2012, 22:24

Tried it again today and still won't load (and therefore no logs). So took advice from others and installed earlier version of VirtualBox (3.x) and everything is working perfectly again. Newer version looks like it bricked itself on power down.

Post by **mpack** » 6. Aug 2012, 11:11

I doubt that very much. Plenty of people are using VBox v4 without seeing your problem. Also, it isn't reasonable to take a v4 VM to VBox v3 and expect it to work. I suspect I'm getting rather garbled info here - which is of course why we ask for logs.

rkuenzi · Post by **rkuenzi** » 2. May 2013, 04:50

Same thing happened to me. Bricked, I can't create any vm's from scratch after one ubuntu vm stopped working after a power outage. Also no logs because I deleted the vm trying to get a new one to work properly. So the VM folders are gone.
Going to try an older version on VirtualBox like he suggested.

virtualbox.org

Failed to attach the hard disk (...) to the slot SATA Port

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