differencing image of snapshot error

[MHF]

i'm using Win 7 HP x64 with a guest VM that is Win XP x86. i am running VirtualBox 4.2.6.

my computer was restarted a few days ago after MS updates were installed and since then i have had problems. it first gave me an inaccessible error about 'no hard disk is selected for ide'. from googling around i found a solution to take the XP.vbox-temp and change the name to XP.vbox which seemed to work. it came up with another error and i just created another VM that i named XP2 and used the latest snapshot as the 'use existing virtual hard drive'. that seemed to work but now i am getting a different error.

Code: Select all

A differencing image of snapshot {d669279f-d786-40d7-8f9f-6fc80179f2c9} could not be found. Could not find an open hard disk with UUID {f5dcb9c2-e6cb-42e9-b669-a097b638bac6}.
Result Code: 
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: 
SnapshotMachine
Interface: 
IMachine {22781af3-1c96-4126-9edf-67a020e0e858}

i can create new VM's and use the existing virtual HDD (latest snapshot) and they work just fine but when VirtualBox is shut down and restarted then nothing works. i would just delete the VM and all snapshots but adding in several printers and some finicky software is a problem. when i first set up this computer i had to spend several hours on the phone trying to get the software to work. any help is very much appreciated!

i have since deleted the extra VM's named XP2 and XP3 that i created in trying to fix the problem. below is the exact error that i am having and the contents of my snapshots folder.
oi43-tinypic-com/9zpwgi
won't let me post urls so change dashes to dots and add .jpg to above address.

[mpack]

As the error message says, the current state of the VM is referring (by UUID) to a disk that doesn't exist. At a guess, I'd say that you deleted a snapshot, and then the PC was reset before you closed that session. I personally avoid snapshots because of the obvious dangers in the technology, so I don't know for certain if that scenario is actually possible.

You have a couple of options.

1. You can try looking in the VM folder for a .vbox-tmp file. If it exists then you can try renaming it to .vbox.

2. Or, you can try using CloneVDI to clone the newest vdi file found in the Snapshots subfolder of the VM folder. If that works then the result is a flat VDI clone you can build a new VM around (don't use it in the original VM).

[MHF]

well that was certainly easy. thanks for the advice and making the tool to fix the problem, mpack!
i will stay away from snapshots from now on and just use the new original .vdi that i got with CloneVDI now. only other question is can i rename the .vdi now? i didn't change the name so now i have a filename of cloneof[long uuid string].vdi within the snapshots folder and that doesn't seem like a good name or location for my primary .vdi.
sorry for the late reply but the solution was really easy so i kind of forgot about you!

1. ran CloneVDI
2. pointed at the latest snapshot that i had
3. let it do its thing and make another .vdi file
4. set up another VM and pointed it to the new .vdi file when it asked to setup a hdd
5. good as new!

[mpack]

Yes, you can rename the clone VDI at any time, provided you haven't already registered it in a VM.

The best location for the VDI is in the VM folder of the new VM. Unfortunately VirtualBox doesn't provide an obvious way to do that. What works for me is to create a new VM, and when it gets to the disk creation stage I select "use existing" - however at that point I break away and move the VDI into the new VM folder which the wizard has already created, then I switch back to the wizard dialog and select the VDI. That ensures that everything is in its proper place.

If you've already created the new VM then you need to go into File|Virtual Media Manager and "Release" (unmount from VM) and then "Remove" (unregister the media) the VDI. Then you can shut down VirtualBox completely, rename the VDI, move the VDI into the VM folder, then run VBox again, go into the VMs storage settings, and re-mount the VDI from its new location. It is very much worth doing this, not so much for the rename but to get the VDI into the VM folder, which will avoid a number of potential future problems (e.g. backing up the VM folder, forgetting that the VDI isn't there - or deleting the old VM folder, thinking it isn't needed).

[MHF]

yep, that got it done. thanks again for all your help, mpack!