VM definition changes 4.3.8 > 4.3.10

[MacNala]

I am stuck. I had a system failure on one of my machines. The one that hosts a number of Windows 7 guest VM machines.
While I had a Windows backup of all of these machines I cannot get it restore one of them to a newly defined Guest VM.
I created a Windows 7 installation and then tried to restore the backup to get the lost machine back.
The restore works fine but the resulting VM will not boot it flashes a screen at me but so fast I cannot stop the guest machine to read what it is telling me.
The only difference I can see checking the definitions I had of the original machine is that they were created under 4.3.8 or earlier and I am now using 4.3.10.

Is there a way to define a guest machine the same way that one would define it under 4.3.8 so I can try to recover this machine's files?

[mpack]

All VMs since 4.0.0 onwards are defined the same way, so version incompatibility is not your problem - unless perhaps you have a saved state associated with the VM, in which case you should discard it (right click | discard saved state).

Please pick a VM and list the contents of the VM folder and its "Snapshots" subfolder. Also post a zip containing the <vmname>.vbox file and the "VBox.log" file from the "Logs" subfolder.

[MacNala]

Thanks for the help.
The fact that VMs are defined the same way suggests that I have not defined the settings of the new VM exactly the same as the Original VM so I will tackle the problem a different way.

I am going to resurrect the Old Host machine sufficiently to be able to redo the backups of the Guest VM I am having trouble with used Windows Backup and DriveSnapshot. I will then try the restore again.

Is there a way to dump the details of the Original VM so that they can be used for the new VM?

[mpack]

Don't bother with Windows backup, that just adds another layer of complication. The best way to back up a VM is simply to copy the entire VM folder to a backup drive: making sure that the backup drive is not FAT32 formatted (otherwise it has a 4GB file size limit).

To restore on the new PC, copy the VM folder to wherever you want, then use Machine|Add... to register the .vbox file.

[loukingjr]

mpack is correct.

I was thinking though, and I'm not sure if it works the same way on a Windows host as it does on a Mac host. If you have a backup of the entire "VirtualBox VMs" folder, You should be able to restore it to the new machine in the same(default) location on the new machine as it was on the old machine. Then all the guests should show up in VirtualBox the next time you start it.

[mpack]

I'm afraid I'm not qualified to comment as I don't use Windows Backup. I have an instinctive distrust of complex backup procedures. At work the IT people insist on having some continuous and indiscriminate network tape backup process going, but for stuff I really care about, I make my own backups manually.

[loukingjr]

I'm afraid I'm not qualified to comment as I don't use Windows Backup. I have an instinctive distrust of complex backup procedures. At work the IT people insist on having some continuous and indiscriminate network tape backup process going, but for stuff I really care about, I make my own backups manually.

I agree. Manual backups certainly have less risk. Automated backup systems are primarily good for those who always forget to make backups or are just lazy.

[MacNala]

Don't bother with Windows backup, that just adds another layer of complication. The best way to back up a VM is simply to copy the entire VM folder to a backup drive: making sure that the backup drive is not FAT32 formatted (otherwise it has a 4GB file size limit).

To restore on the new PC, copy the VM folder to wherever you want, then use Machine|Add... to register the .vbox file.

This sounds very doable. I did that with the other VMs and they worked I wonder why this VM did not.
I will retry it.

[MacNala]

I think I have detected a possible reason I was unable to copy the virtual machine by copying the virtual disk.
The original VM has a file named VBXW74.XML whereas all the others are of the form VBXW72.vbox
What is the difference of the extension? They seem to me by comparison to be the same.
Should it just be a change of the extension would make it copyable?

The virtual disks for the original VM are of the extension .VDI whereas the others are .VHD.
Should this make a difference?