virtualbox.org

I get 'failed to open hard disk' error VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND when selecting an existing .vmdk file to create a new VM. The vmdk was created by vmware converter, the current version [5.1 I believe]. It was a P2V of a Windows 7 physical machine.

I am running the current version [4.2.10] of virtualBox for OS X. Any ideas what's causing this error? I tried dragging and dropping the vmdk file into virtual media manager and that doesn't work either.

-F

what is the size of your vmdk?

68Gb

I would like to see a screenshot of the actual error please. Also a screenshot of the folder containing this VMDK.

screenshot attached; hope you can read it, I had to reduce it for the forum's size requirement. Thanks for taking a look.

For future reference, png format is normally more effective at compressing computer graphics. Use JPEG for natural images.

Well, I don't see the obvious problem - but the error itself is a classic example of what happens when you try to open a partial VMDK which references other files in its header. Looking at the header with a hex editor might give you a clue what it might be looking for. Possible examples include a parent image (making this is a differencing disk), or additional segments that should be present etc. Sometimes the header paths are absolute, in which case it wouldn't work unless you set up the correct folder structure or edited the header.

So does this mean that I can't copy or move a vmdk file from one folder to another without editing the vmdk's header?

I gave several options for you to investigate - and I didn't attempt to make the list exhaustive (e.g. I didn't mention the possibility of a truncated file). If a particular one those suggestions proved correct then yes what you say would be the result. However I would investigate first, speculate later.