Copying a virtual machine.

[saaaaint]

Hello forum,

I have an existing virtual machine windows XP, which resides in a 15 GB .vdi file. After a few months use, I find there is not enough space left. I'd like to make another one and gives it 25 GB space this time.

I'm thinking to use drive imaging program to back up the whole system in XP, then restore it to a new made guest machine.


What is some easier way rather than do a whole new installation all over again?

Thanks in advance !

Host: openSUSE 12.3 64bit
Guest: Win XP
VBox version 4.2.10

[Perryg]

Why not simply fix the one you have?
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=50661

[saaaaint]

Thank you very much. I don't understand what "Fixed drive" means in the tutorial but I guess it has nth to do with me...?

Anyway, I get this error:
Progress state: VBOX_E_NOT_SUPPORTED
VBoxManage: error: Resize hard disk operation for this format is not implemented yet!

My linux file system is ext4
Maybe I should copy it to a windows system to operate (NTFS)?

[Perryg]

There are two types of drives Fixed and Dynamic. VirtualBox by default uses Dynamic. There are ways to increase the size of the drive if it is Fixed but a lot harder.

[saaaaint]

There are two types of drives Fixed and Dynamic. VirtualBox by default uses Dynamic. There are ways to increase the size of the drive if it is Fixed but a lot harder.

I never use dynamic drive due to performance consideration. So it failed because the drive is fixed not because of the file system format?

[Perryg]

Yes it failed due to Fixed.

I've tried both and see little to no difference in disk IO, read writes, seek, Etc. I must say I have had a lot of people say that there is a big difference and to date no one has proved that theory. So I just use Dynamic.