Snapshot won't delete

[joeller]

I can't go to lunch because the external hard drive needs the certificate on my CAC card to operate the encryption. So when I pull it out.....

[Perryg]

Ah security. Gotta love it.

[joeller]

[mpack]

Yup. USB drives are slow

Especially if it's constantly turning the line around between read and write. If it's only writing then I typically get 5-8MB/s with a USB drive. Around 5 times slower than a typical internal hard drive.

[Perryg]

eSATA for external drives. It's the only way to go.

[joeller]

Yeah my personal external hardrive docking station uses eSATA. And it isn't encrypted with a separate key than the internal hard drive.

[joeller]

VM cloned successfully and moved to internal hard drive. Thanks all.

to quote Columbo "Ahh, just one more thing."

I read somewhere on line in a set of instructions for duplicating a drive that after the cloned machine is created then it needs to be renamed. so how does one go about renaming a VM in virtual Box? I did not see any place in the GUI that allows that.

[Perryg]

Go to the guests settings -> general -> Name: and change it.

[joeller]

KOOL BEANS!!

That worked. Unfortunately it did not change the name of the vdi file like I was hoping. Presumably I have to remove the vdi rename it and re-attach it?

[Perryg]

Yeah I would not change the name of the file. That could make your life miserable depending on the OS.

[joeller]

OK I won't for now. But if the very detailed oriented customer insists, how will that react on a Windows 7 64 bit os?

[Perryg]

Not sure. Just stating what I have read from others.

I know I have changed the name on guest file, go into the settings and attach to the new name and had no issue but I would only test this on a clonehd of the original to be safe. (Guessing that the guest is important) What I do is clone the hd and then go into the settings and switch to the new VDI. Then check to see if you need to activate again.

[mpack]

Everything in VirtualBox refers to a disk drive using its UUID. The relationship between a filename and a UUID is stored in just one place, so it can easily be changed - this feature is the main argument IMHO in favor of keeping disk UUIDs. The "one place" is the media registry, which in VMs created by VBox v4 or later is stored in the .vbox file.

Two ways to easily change a VDI filename:

1. The official (but dangerous) method. Use File|Virtual Media Manager to Release (unmount) then Remove (unregister) the media - keep the physical files of course, shut down VBox, rename the file, startup VBox again and use the "Storage" settings of the VM to re-add the renamed disk. This is somewhat long winded, and the dangers here are accidentally deleting the physical file, and damaging a snapshot chain. Not recommended if the VM uses snapshots.
2. The easier, safer (IMHO) but officially deprecated way: shut down VBox, edit the .vbox file to change the name, rename physical file to suit. Run VBox again, done.

The second method does however require you to be comfortable editing xml text files.

[joeller]

Thanks guys; as it turns out the customer does want the vdi changed. So I will use Don's method 2 as I have more confidence with the change made in the XML rather than doing a release and re-add. I figure I can make a copy of the VBOX file and if there is a problem always restore back to the original vbox file with no issues.

And Don all snapshots have been eliminated and we will never ever make one again.

[joeller]

Just wanted to finish up by saying once again mpack's instructions have hit the mark. VM has been renamed, it opens fine and works just fine. Unfortunately after all the work we did to get to this state, I find that the host still doesn't run any better. Still locks up when using VM, IE, and VS simultaneously.
Ah well.