virtualbox.org

Hi
My set up is a bit strange in that I have been syncing installs between desktop and laptop.
What happened was I got everything all sorted on desktop then copied VHD's , VirtualBox Vms & .Virtualbox over to a clean Vbox install on the laptop running VirtualBox-4.2.6-82870-Win the same as the desktop.
This has worked fine.
However if I upgrade to version 4.2.10 then everything is broken. No errors to speak of but yellow hazard sign against the VHD's saying media ID's in the registry don't match etc.
If I then downgrade to VirtualBox-4.2.6-82870-Win it all starts working again.

I'd like to upgrade without breaking it all - what can I do thanks?
Attaching files

You say "copied VHDs". How exactly did you make the copy?

Used USB drive to copy everything from desktop to laptop

Ç: users/.virtual box
C:users/virtualboxvms
E:/data/VM (vhds)


Same locs on each device .thanks

It looks like you don't have the virtual hds mounted properly in the VM - the local media registry is empty, as is the legacy global one. It looks like you probably mounted the disk in some other VM, and then mounted in a second VM. If you do that then the disk is not registered twice, you share the first registration and the structure is more likely to unreliable, like now.

This has nothing to do with VirtualBox version.

To fix, first move each disk into the VM folder of the VM which owns it. Make sure that, in general, no VM accesses a disk that is outside its home folder. Mount the disk using the VM settings | Storage section of the correct VM.

If you find that some VMs are actually sharing a disk, then clone the disk (File | Virtual Media Manager | Copy) so that each VM can have its own unique copy.

OK thanks a lot ....not sure I follow totally though

I understand I need to move the vhds from e/data/VM to c/users/admin/virtuaboxl VMS
So all in default location but not sure what you mean after that ...

If you could be so kind to a step 1 2 3 etc that will be amazing help
Will snapshots still work too? Thanks a lot

I'm not sure I can make it any simpler than I already did in the last two paragraphs above. Check each VM one by one. Make sure that the only hard disks mounted in that VM are unique to that VM, and the vhd files should be located inside the VM folder.

I can't answer the question about snapshots. If you have been sharing snapshotted hard disks across VMs then the situation is probably hopeless. If you haven't then you should be fine. If in doubt you can always clone the VM, making sure that you do NOT preserve the snapshot structure. That will guarantee a stand alone VM.

And while I'm at it, I must ask... why VHDs? VDI is the VirtualBox native format, VMDK would be a fair second choice, VHD is a poor third.