Are vdi files orphaned?

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Jonny64
Posts: 10
Joined: 24. Jun 2008, 21:39

Are vdi files orphaned?

Post by Jonny64 »

I had a working saved state xp guest on a win7-64 host, and the C: drive with VB (newest version) crashed

The backup VDI files were on another drive.

Now when I installed VB and changed the settings to pickup the vdi on the other drive they are not listed as VM in the VB Manager

Any suggestions? I did look through the Chp 8 but all references (at least to me) =>> export vdi as a ovl & then import the ovl

I did search for a vdi to ovl tool but the only one I found was based on linux (not available to me)

TIA!
JonnyDee
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39134
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Are vdi files orphaned?

Post by mpack »

I think your basic mistake is thinking of the VDI file as being the VM, and looking for ways to recover a VM by registering the VDI file. That's like buying a hard disk and thinking that makes a complete PC.

The primary file for the VM is the .vbox file. The .vbox file contains the information needed to use all other files, including zero or more VDI files. The GUIs Machine|Add... menu item can be used to register .vbox files, if they are not already registered on a given host.

To recover a VM from a backup, copy the entire VM folder (including .vbox, .vdi and other files and subfolders) to your preferred location, then use Machine|Add.

Ovl files should not be required.
Jonny64
Posts: 10
Joined: 24. Jun 2008, 21:39

Re: Are vdi files orphaned?

Post by Jonny64 »

That worked!

TYVM ... lol ... and here I was trying to make it complicated
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