Disk access error on boot - VB created copy of vdi file

[Chris@%]

I recently created a VM running XP as the guest OS. The host is Win7. All was well for the first few days, untill the following week when I tried to start my VM. Right after the VB boot screen logo was displayed the error "Disk access error Press Ctrl-Alt-Del" was displayed. After hunting around, I discovered that VB had created a file named prfC96.tmp that was the exact same size as my virtual disk image - which I had set up as a fixed size file. I changed the name of the .vdi file and renamed the .tmp file to the original .vdi file name and was able to start my VM with no problems.

Any idea why this happened? I did not try cloning the drive or making any snapshots or anything else that I can remember that would have caused this to happen.

[mpack]

I'm pretty sure that tmp file was not created by VirtualBox. It has no reason to copy the hard disk in normal operation: disks are dynamically expanding, or fixed size - neither one needs to be copied in the normal course of events.

If I was you I'd be looking at backup tools, that sort of thing. Specifically I'd be looking at a backup tool that fails with very large files for time or space reasons.