virtualbox.org

Hey guys,

I've been snooping the forums for a while, but never signed up.... of course, now i'm having a slight issue

I need some help here! I've been using virtualbox to run some low key email servers and things. It's been great..... except.

Configuration;
Virtual machine running freenas on a vdmk
All my data was stored on a separate virtual disk.
The system disk had an issue and wouldn't boot properly.
I removed the data disk from the virtual machine (the intention of saving my data).
Then restored the snap shot....
The system added my data disk back in and reverted all of the files.

Is there anyway to save my data on that data disk? It's the same size (215 gigs) as it was earlier today

Any help is greatly appreciated!

What means "save the data"?

if the data disk is OK, you can create a linux guest with that data disk only and with an empty vdi-image. And then boot this machine with a linux cd and you can copy data from this disc to any other disc (cd/dvd, shared folder, usb stick mounted in that guest).

If you remove and re-add disks in a VM which uses snapshots... well you are just begging for trouble. Why would you remove a disk anyway if your intention was simply to back up the VM? To make a backup all you need do is copy the entire VM folder to secondary media - I suggest you do that right now.

As to how to recover, search the forums for "snapshots" and "CloneVDI". For example here.

Thanks for the replys.

I'll try to clarify a bit. I wasn't trying to make a backup. The Freenas OS had crashed and was on a seperate virtual disk. I wanted to restore it to a previous version but didn't want any data on the secondary data disk, so I unmounted it from the Virtual machine thinking it would hold my latest data. Instead, reverting to the previous snapshot readded the disk back to the Guest (makes sense I guess), from sept 2012, Now the only data that shows up on the secondary data disk stops at Sept 2012 (again which makes sense). BUT, the VDI file size for the storage disk is what it was 2 days ago, meaning that my data should be there, but the VM isn't reading it to date.... possibly(hopefully)

does that make more sense??

Some additional info,

The VDI I currently have shows a modified date of sept 19, 2012,(215 GB) but in the snapshots directory, there are 2 other VDI files with modified dates of March 13,2013 and are 4GB and 51GB. I'm assuming these are the delta files and I'm also assuming my most recent data since sept 19, 2012 is stored in the these VDI's. I just have no idea if A) i'm correct, and B) If i am, how I can get it back.....

See my CloneVDI link above.

Thank you!

I'm just working my way through the clone VDI tool. Just for clarification, Am I cloning the original drive or the snapshots? It seems it will only let me clone the original as when I try to select the VDI's in the snapshots directory, I get a, "this is a differenceing image" error.....

thanks again!

I answer that question in the instructions given in the link. Did you copy all of the VDI files (including the base) into a single folder?

Snapshot feature/facility creates only a delta update to the 'base' virtual disk, not an image replacement. The deltas, also known as differenceing images, are not stand-alone images; they must be applied to the 'base' image in the hierarchy that they were created. The deltas may be merged with the 'base' image (time consuming if many deltas} or use the CloneVDI tool or the Virtual Machine may be cloned (v4.2), creating a new 'base' image.

It took a while as I had to transfer it to a different machine, but it worked!

You sir, are a rock star! Thank you so much!