Sharing VM between Ubuntu and Windows 8 Partitions

[kyari05]

Hi,

I've got an Ubuntu Server 12.10 x64 VM that I'm trying to share between two OSes - Windows 8 on one partition of my laptop, and Ubuntu 12.10 x64 on the other partition. It's sitting in my C:\Users'\Me\Virtualbox VMs\Ubuntu Server x64 folder. I created the VM in Ubuntu, and then moved it over to the Windows 8 partition in hopes that I would be able to use it in both OSes. I can still use it when I run Virtualbox from Ubuntu, but when I open it up in Windows and try to run it, I get:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Ubuntu Server x64
No error info.
Details:
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
ProgressProxy
Interface:
IProgress {c20238e4-3221-4d3f-8891-81ce92d9f913}

Then, a file is created in the VM's folder called Ubuntu Server x64.vbox-prev

Lastly, at the bottom of the logs, I'm getting:

00:00:00.579443 Power up failed (vrc=VINF_SUCCESS, rc=E_FAIL (0X80004005))

Any thoughts? Any help would be much appreciated

[mpack]

The .vbox file is not always portable between different host OS. You would need to copy the .vbox file and then edit it to remove "foreign" path and devices names. Or, create a new VM around the existing VDI, then patch the VM UUID before attempting to run the VM, otherwise you'll fall foul of activation checks. All of this requires a certain familiarity with xml and VirtualBox.

[kyari05]

Alright, thanks! I did some digging to see what I could find out, and it seemed that in Windows, the <HardDisk> tag was still looking for the .vmdk using a hybrid Windows/Ubuntu path, at C:/media/Windows 8/Users et cetera ... making a new .vbox file and fixing the paths has solved it.

Again, thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[mpack]

Good that you made progress, though given that you created a new .vbox file I hope you noted what I said above about copying the VM UUID.