Putting VM's "back in place" after a Win7 host reinstall?

[Lee48]

Hey guys,

I need to learn how to get my VirtualBox program set back up after I do a Windows 7 reinstall (on my Host machine) with the current VM's I have setup now. I'm now using v4.3.10 of VirtualBox but I'll install the current version when I reinstall. Or will there be a conflict? Should I install the same version and then update after it's all setup?

I've already backed up the folders where my VM's are but once I reinstall VirtualBox on the new OS, and I copy back the folders to the same path locations, what all am I supposed to do at that point to get everything restored to the way it was before I reinstalled my OS?

I look forward to hearing from you fine folks about how to do this. Thanks!

[loukingjr]

Once you have everything back in place, you will need to re-register all your VMs. I'm not sure about the Windows version but, start VirtualBox, in the Group Menu (on Mac hosts), select "Add Machine..." (or the equivalent keyboard shortcut), navigate to a VM folder, open it, select the *.vbox file to add the VM. repeat.

You can use the same version of VirtualBox or you could update to 4.3.12 or 4.3.18. 4.3.14 and 4.3.16 had some issues on Windows hosts. If you do update you will have to update the guest additions for each guest.

[mpack]

On Windows hosts it's the Machine menu, so Machine|Add... is the required function. Remember that the VM is the .vbox file (*), so navigate and select that file to register the VM.

(*) For reasons that escape me, Windows hosts default to hiding the extensions of known file types - so you won't see any ".vbox" file if you have this option ticked. I untick this option in the shell/explorer settings. In the meantime the .vbox file is the one with the visible type of "VirtualBox Machine Definition".

[loukingjr]

Thanks for the clarification about the Windows version mpack. I did notice on a Mac I have that still has 4.3.16 installed it has a Machine menu instead of Group. I don't know if something has changed for 4.3.18 or the Menu label changes to say Group if you have any VMs grouped together, which I do on my 4.3.18 install.

[mpack]

I tend not to use groups, and I'm at work right now with not many VMs handy... but I'd hazard a guess that if you have a single VM selected in the GUI then it says "Machine", and if you select a group it says "Group".

[loukingjr]

I'm guessing you're correct.

[Lee48]

Once you have everything back in place, you will need to re-register all your VMs. I'm not sure about the Windows version but, start VirtualBox, in the Group Menu (on Mac hosts), select "Add Machine..." (or the equivalent keyboard shortcut), navigate to a VM folder, open it, select the *.vbox file to add the VM. repeat.

You can use the same version of VirtualBox or you could update to 4.3.12 or 4.3.18. 4.3.14 and 4.3.16 had some issues on Windows hosts. If you do update you will have to update the guest additions for each guest.

Cool beans! Thanks, loukingjr. That sure sounds easy enough. It'll be a few days before I'll be doing this but I'll report back and let you know how it went. And I'm glad you told me about the glitchy versions (4.3.14 and 4.3.16) so I think I'll just put the same version back on with the guest additions then update them after all is said and done.

[Lee48]

On Windows hosts it's the Machine menu, so Machine|Add... is the required function. Remember that the VM is the .vbox file (*), so navigate and select that file to register the VM.

(*) For reasons that escape me, Windows hosts default to hiding the extensions of known file types - so you won't see any ".vbox" file if you have this option ticked. I untick this option in the shell/explorer settings. In the meantime the .vbox file is the one with the visible type of "VirtualBox Machine Definition".

Thanks, mpack. I've always been one to change the settings in explorer to show all hidden files (and folders), so that wont be an issue for me seeing the .vbox files. But it was nice of you to mention that in case I didn't have hidden files being shown in explorer.