Write without a referencing image?

[GC-Kev]

Hi all,

Is there a way to have Virtual Box write, all the time, to the virtual hard disk that you set up instead of it utilizing a referencing image to maintain changes? I've noticed that for some updates (ex. installing IE8 in Win XP), not all, it will write to the VHD. Though otherwise, it seems to use the referencing image for all other changes that I made.

Thanks a lot!
-Kev

[mpack]

Creating a differenced image in the first place was your choice - it is not the default. Having created a differenced image the base image is frozen and no, it cannot be written to without invalidating all difference images derived from it.

[GC-Kev]

Creating a differenced image in the first place was your choice - it is not the default. Having created a differenced image the base image is frozen and no, it cannot be written to without invalidated all difference images derived from it.

Thanks for your response, mpack. So is there a way to have the base image not frozen? I'm obviously missing it. I appreciate your time.

[Martin]

If you change anything in the base image all referencing images will be invalid and need to be recreated.

[GC-Kev]

If you change anything in the base image all referencing images will be invalid and need to be recreated.

I'm actually looking to avoid referencing all together, if possible.

[mpack]

That's the bit I don't understand. As I said above, it isn't the default. If you don't want to use a differencing image then don't.

If your problem is that you've already created a difference image and now want rid of it, then read on...

A differencing image is created in a number of circumstances. Most common is snapshots, but they are also used to implement immutable drive feature, linked clones etc. Once created they are very hard to get rid of. Apart from complicated manual editing of the xml, the most practical way is to create a full clone of the affected VM, and if asked: clone current state only. The clone VM will then use a plain stand alone disk and, after testing, the original VM can be deleted. Note that cloning can occasionally cause its own problems, e.g. provoking reactivation in Win7 and later, or (rarely) causing Linux to fail on boot due to grub looking for a particular UUID. Both problems are easily fixed.

[GC-Kev]

Thanks for the clarification, mpack!

I was misunderstanding it. I thought it used them all the time, but apparently they are only created once you create a snapshot, or other circumstances, as you mentioned.

I appreciate your time!
-Kev