virtualbox.org

Hello Guys

I have Virtual Box running on my MacBook which is using Mountain Lion.

My first virtual machine I chose to delete, but even though I deleted it, the .vdi is still on my SSD and is taking up a massive amount of space.

I cannot delete it!

It is driving me mad!

Please see attached screen shot. The WINDOWS.vdi is my current virtual machine which works perfectly. The Windows 7 Pro.vdi is the rubbish one which I cannot remove.

Step by step instruction please guys if anyone can help. Thanks in advance

Removing a VM from the GUI does not delete the physical files unless you say so at the time.

Go into File|Virtual Media Manager and choose Release and then Remove. If all else fails then simply use the host to delete the files. If, as you say, they are not needed then that should have no ill effect. However, I would suggest backing the file up anyway, just in case you turn out to be wrong.

How do I use the host to delete the files?

Sorry I'm new to this

I'm not a Mac user, so I can't give you Mac tuition. All I can tell you is to delete files in the normal way.

Highlight the "Windows 7 Pro.vdi" file in the search window, press command-R (⌘R) to open the folder containing the vdi, then command-click the window title to navigate up to the "VirtualBox VMs" folder and delete the folder called "Windows 7 Pro" (move to trash). Once you've moved the folder to the trash, empty the trash.

The Command R function does not open that particular vdi. If you refer to my screen grab earlier in the post, the Command R function opens the WINDOWS.vdi image absolutely fine with no issues at all but it refuses to open the Windows 7 Pro.vdi image.

I cannot see why this is proving so difficult to do, it is simply an unwanted file I want to delete!

To make it worse the whole reason I wanted to use virtualbox was to play PC games here but even basic ones are incompatible with the graphics drivers installed in the host machine.

I should have used wine! And if anyone here has the same idea about playing PC games on a virtual Windows PC then I wouldn't bother and would say to people to avoid virtual box like the plague as not only does it not work properly it steals your computers drive space and does not give it back!

AVOID!

Command-R does not open the VDI, it opens the folder that contains the VDI if you've selected that VDI in the search window.

You could try doing this another way around. You didn't give any information about what version of the Mac OS you are using so I'm going to assume you're a total noob and list the two common methods.

If you are using a version of Mac OS X prior to 10.7 (Lion) then to find the VirtualBox folder that contains all it's files (assuming you used the default setting when creating your VMs) you'll need to use the following path:

[hard drive]/Users/[your account]/Library/VirtualBox

If you're using 10.7 or greater (Lion or Mountain Lion) then Apple made things a bit harder by hiding the Library folder to keep the noobs out of areas where they can cause mischief. The easiest way to get there is to use the Finder, hold down the option key (it's the one that says "option" on it) and click on the Go menu. You should see the Library folder in the list so select it. When the Library folder opens you should be able to see the VirtualBox folder and can continue from there.

RJW1979 wrote:I should have used wine!

It sounds like you're using plenty of whine.

rpmurray wrote:
It sounds like you're using plenty of whine.

LOL

Still no success!

I have deleted VB but before I did that I deleted the virtual machine as the instruction state before fully uninstalling virtual box.

However...

I have not got my disk space back and although I cannot locate the VDI files on the hard drive if I look for them, if I do a spotlight search they still show up and are still stealing my SSD space!

Thanks to all those who helped and suggested things to try, and for the person who seemed to think me a bit thick I did clearly state I was using Mountain Lion in the earlier posts!

I enclose a screen grab of these weird VDI files which I cannot delete or locale, I have used various programs to try to find them and have been through my directories yet cannot find the location or any information about these files, open them or even delete them.

Any suggestions on how to find a file that has no information about it or where it may be lurking?

non-sarcastic basic advice appreciated

RJW1979 wrote:Still no success!
I enclose a screen grab of these weird VDI files which I cannot delete or locale, I have used various programs to try to find them and have been through my directories yet cannot find the location or any information about these files, open them or even delete them.

Any suggestions on how to find a file that has no information about it or where it may be lurking?

non-sarcastic basic advice appreciated

I'm somewhat confused. Looking at the screenshot you posted it seems you did locate them and they are in your Shared folder. What happens if you right click on each one? You should get a popup menu giving you various options including "Move To Trash".

loukingjr wrote:I'm somewhat confused. Looking at the screenshot you posted it seems you did locate them and they are in your Shared folder. What happens if you right click on each one? You should get a popup menu giving you various options including "Move To Trash".

Actually, no, the Shared you see in the search window is not the folder that the files are in, it's a link that lets you see any matches for the search term in any folders that are being shared. In this case all we know is that the files on somewhere on "This Mac". Your advice about right-clicking the files is excellent, much simpler than the instructions I was giving.

Thanks for your quick replies.

Attached is a screen grab of what happens if I right click one of those vdi files.

It is like they don't exist and as you can imagine it is very annoying now.

Thanks in advance

rpmurray wrote:

loukingjr wrote:I'm somewhat confused. Looking at the screenshot you posted it seems you did locate them and they are in your Shared folder. What happens if you right click on each one? You should get a popup menu giving you various options including "Move To Trash".

Actually, no, the Shared you see in the search window is not the folder that the files are in, it's a link that lets you see any matches for the search term in any folders that are being shared. In this case all we know is that the files on somewhere on "This Mac". Your advice about right-clicking the files is excellent, much simpler than the instructions I was giving.

the "Shared" is the folder they are in. that's the whole point of the search window. It gives you the path of the files. In this case /Users(Ryan)/Shared/(the two files). If you click on the HD icon in the sidepane, then Users, then Shared, they should be there.

RJW1979 wrote:Thanks for your quick replies.

Attached is a screen grab of what happens if I right click one of those vdi files.

It is like they don't exist and as you can imagine it is very annoying now.

Thanks in advance

what happens if you select "Open Enclosing Folder"?

btw, when you see a dimmed icon as yours seem to be in the screenshot that usually means the files are on a different partition or a different user account. if you created them in a different account you would have to log into that account to delete them or login as root.