Running VM Snapshot

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
Post Reply
howard@careercrafting.com
Posts: 8
Joined: 21. Jan 2014, 21:44

Running VM Snapshot

Post by howard@careercrafting.com »

Hi Everyone:

I'm running VB on a macbook pro with latest Mavericks OS. My Guest OS is Windows 7. All seems to be running fine. The only issue is that I appear to be running off of a VM Snapshot for a very long time and would like to be able to change this and go back to the "normal" usage of the VM. I do not know how to make this change safely. I'd appreciate the procedure for this. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Howard
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: Running VM Snapshot

Post by mpack »

I have no idea what you mean by "running off a snapshot for a long time". A snapshot is a marker in time, not a new entity. It will remain forever until you delete it using the snapshot manager.
howard@careercrafting.com
Posts: 8
Joined: 21. Jan 2014, 21:44

Re: Running VM Snapshot

Post by howard@careercrafting.com »

What I mean is that when I look at my list of Virtual Machines I see that the one for Windows 7 has a parenthesis next to it with "Snapshot...." in it. To me this suggests that when I run this VM, I'm loading this old snapshot and continually updating it. I don't want to be running and updating a snapshot, I want to work directly with a VM. I do not see this snapshot reference with my VM for Windows XP or Ubuntu.

If I use the snapshot manager to delete the snapshot for my Windows 7 VM, then won't I be deleting everything I've done in the past 2 years since this snapshot was created? I want to have a fully current VM without a snapshot. The question is how do I make this happen and delete the old snapshot.

Sincerely,
Howard
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27329
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Running VM Snapshot

Post by socratis »

Did you read Chapter 1.10. "Snapshots" of the User Manual? Was there a particular point that was not understandable?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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: Running VM Snapshot

Post by mpack »

Deleting a snapshot means deleting a marker, deleting the ability to revert to a past moment in time. It doesn't mean deleting data.

However, if you are concerned about the possible effect of any dangerous manipulation - and using snapshots at all certainly qualifies - then make a backup of your VM folder first. Alternatively you can clone the VM: full (not linked) clone, current state only, don't reset MAC address. That will get rid of the snapshot without risk of corruption, however this does involve changes to disk signatures etc which has the potential to provoke reactivation of a Win7 guest.
Post Reply