virtualbox.org

I cant create a snapshot. I get

"Failed to create a snapshot of the virtual machine Bonnies Laptop. "

I have several other vm's that I can take snapshots of. Where can I look to get more details as to the cause?

I'm running Win7 64bit as host and the guest is also Win 7-64 The ones I can take snapshots of are all XP guests.

Thank

Malcolm

First, give the full verbatim error, either the copy/paste of the CMD or a screenshot of the error dialog.

Exact text is

"Failed to create a snapshot of the virtual machine Bonnies Laptop"

and there's an OK and COPY buttons. If I press copy, it just puts this text into the clipboard.

I was wondering if there's a log anywhere that would give me a more detailed error, since this one doesnt really tell me anything?

Thanks guys

Can you post a screenshot of the error dialog?

Here is the actual dialogue

Well, that's a pretty uninformative dialog. I apologise for not believing you about it!

When are you creating the snapshot? I.e. is the VM shut down, suspended, paused or running? Does the VM run for that matter?

Hi
Yes the VM runs, and I've tried doing the snapshot both with it running and with it off. Same error both times. The history of the VM is that, as the name suggests, it's a virtualisation of my daughters laptop. I imaged the drive then created a virtual disc, restored the image onto it, then ran it through Paragon's Virtualization Manager, which adjusts Windows to reflect the new hardware. I've used this technique many times to create VM's from physical machines without any issues, although I cant remember if I've actually snapshoted them.

I guess the problem is trying to get more detail on the issue. It could be something really simple, but without a more detailed error log I'm really stuck. I was hoping someone might be able to suggest a way of looking under the hood and getting more detail.

Many Thanks

I would suggest two courses of action:

1. Clone the VM - full clone, current state only, don't reset the MAC. This should give you a working clone with no snapshot encumberance.

2. If you want to pursue the original problem then post a VM log file. For details see Minimum information needed for assistance.

I suggest that you follow 1 and then avoid snapshots entirely in future. They are error prone disk space (and human time) wasters.

Last night I tried something new. As I said in a previous post I use Paragon's Virtualization Manager to create/adjust VM's from physical. I usually just take an image, restore it onto a virtual disk and then adjust it to fit the new hardware with Virtualization Manager. This has always worked in the past. Anyway, I realised that there's another way that I could try. I created a stand-alone boot CD with Virtualization Manager, booted the laptop into Virtualization Manager from this, and then used a different option called P2V to create a virtual machine directly from the physical disc onto an external USB drive. When I copied this onto my VM host, I was immediately able to take a snapshot of it. I then ran it and let it upgrade drivers etc., shut it down and did another snapshot successfully.

So, I guess my problem is "fixed". although I don't know what it was, or what the solution would have been. But I'm now happy.

Many Thanks for all your help