Difficulty trying to increase virtual disk size

[Gutz_Otoole]

I'm trying to increase the disk size of my Window 8.1 guest. From what I gather the terminal command is VBoxManage modifyhd <absolute path to file> --resize <size in MB>

In my case the absolute path is /Volumes/MacOS/Users/"my name"/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi

However, when I run that command I get a syntax error, specifically Invalid parameter 'VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi'
Evidently that embedded space in the folder name is causing a problem. I can't even navigate to that folder. When I do a ls command VirtualBox VMs is there with all the other typical OS X home folders, but I can't navigate to it; cd VirtualBox VMs returns No such file or directory

I know my problem derives form the fact that I don't know nearly enough about UNIX or bash.

[socratis]

Try the "escape" character, which is "\", so in your case it would be:

/Volumes/MacOS/Users/"my name"/VirtualBox\ VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi

Or you could drag the file to the terminal and see what's going on with spaces and other funky characters. Or you could look it up in the interwebs.

[loukingjr]

or you can enclose the absolute path in quotes,
Example:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage modifyhd "/Volumes/MacOS/Users/JohnDoe/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi" --resize 60000

[Gutz_Otoole]

I tried using double quotes and got this VBoxManage: error: Cannot register the hard disk '/Volumes/MacOS/Users/mynane/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi' {98fd3611-1a4f-40d1-a4be-30e32bb78059} because a hard disk '/Users/myname/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi' with UUID {98fd3611-1a4f-40d1-a4be-30e32bb78059} already exists
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057), component VirtualBox, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports
VBoxManage: error: Context: "OpenMedium(Bstr(pszFilenameOrUuid).raw(), enmDevType, enmAccessMode, fForceNewUuidOnOpen, pMedium.asOutParam())" at line 178 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

Using the escape character (\) I got this Cannot register the hard disk '/Volumes/MacOS/Users/myname/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi' {98fd3611-1a4f-40d1-a4be-30e32bb78059} because a hard disk '/Users/myname/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi' with UUID {98fd3611-1a4f-40d1-a4be-30e32bb78059} already exists
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057), component VirtualBox, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports
VBoxManage: error: Context: "OpenMedium(Bstr(pszFilenameOrUuid).raw(), enmDevType, enmAccessMode, fForceNewUuidOnOpen, pMedium.asOutParam())" at line 178 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

The same thing. BTW the host is Yosemite 10.10.1, the guest is Windows 8.1 Professional with 4096MB RAM. VirtualBox is version 4.3.18 r96516.

[loukingjr]

Are you using Snapshots or a Fixed Disk?
How to resize a Virtual Drive

Other possibility's…

You made a copy of the .vdi and attached it to a different guest.
You attached the same .vdi to a different guest.

[Gutz_Otoole]

According to a Spotlight search there's only one VWin81.vdi anywhere on my Mac, which is the one in the path specified. It's a dynamic virtual disk created by VirtualBox when I set up the VM.

[socratis]

What's the output of the command "VBoxManage list hdds" ?

[Gutz_Otoole]

Parent UUID: base
State: created
Type: normal (base)
Location: /Users/myname/VirtualBox VMs/E-OS/E-OS-disk2.vmdk
Storage format: VMDK
Capacity: 8191 MBytes

UUID: 98fd3611-1a4f-40d1-a4be-30e32bb78059
Parent UUID: base
State: created
Type: normal (base)
Location: /Users/myname/VirtualBox VMs/VWin81/VWin81.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Capacity: 25600 MBytes

UUID: 6c622157f-fa20-4609-be31-ca215e9ef97c
Parent UUID: base
State: created
Type: normal (base)
Location: /Users/myname/VirtualBox VMs/VWin10/VWin10.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Capacity: 25600 MBytes

[Gutz_Otoole]

socratis gave me the clue that fixed my problem. When I dragged the .vdi file from a Finder window into a terminal window bash put an escape character in the path automatically. I closed that thermal session and started a new one. I typed VBoxManage modifyhd with an embedded space at the end. Then I dragged the .vdi file into the terminal, which put the absolute path where it belonged with an automatic escape character in position. Then I completed the line with --resize 40960

The command worked. When I manually typed in the backslash it failed, as it did by putting the path within quotes. I'm baffled.

This could have all been avoided and simplified by programming VirtualBox to create its virtual machine directory with a name like VirtualBoxVMs or VirtualBox_Ms

Many thanks to all who advised me.

[socratis]

Glad you got it working. Chances are that you were holding typing it wrong. As for your suggestion, I couldn't agree more. It still baffles me as to why the developers chose to have a space in the VMs path, which has caused numerous problems with not so experienced users.

[loukingjr]

Personally I don't see much of an issue with having a space in the "VirtualBox VMs" folder. Even if it was removed, every guest I have has spaces in the name which means so does the containing folder and the .vdi file so unless users are forced to not use spaces, one extra space doesn't seem to matter.

[socratis]

which has caused numerous problems with not so experienced users

Louis, you're not one of them

[loukingjr]

which has caused numerous problems with not so experienced users

Louis, you're not one of them

lol You see my point though.

[mpack]

Personally I don't see much of an issue with having a space in the "VirtualBox VMs" folder. Even if it was removed

On Windows hosts the parent folder of the time was "Documents and Settings", so the path already had multiple spaces.

Get used to it: modern paths and filenames include spaces, and path/filename strings need quotes around them.

[loukingjr]

Personally I don't see much of an issue with having a space in the "VirtualBox VMs" folder. Even if it was removed

On Windows hosts the parent folder was "Documents and Settings", so it still had multiple spaces.

Get used to it: modern paths and filenames include spaces, and path/filename strings need quotes around them.

I was agreeing with you.