virtualbox.org

I had problems with my installation of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I created a new partition, reinstalled Windows, and created a new user account on a different drive. I transferred my files over to my new user account. I had doubts my virtual machines would work but tried copying the files to the new user account. The VMs don't work. See the attached picture. The error message is the same for all of them. My new user account is User1. The old user account was Owner. Is there a way to fix this? I'll edit paths in the files if I have to. Even if I find the lines I need to edit will I be wasting my time because there will be other problems that I can't fix? Is there a way to install VirtualBox or configure VMs so the %userprofile% environment variable is used instead of a specific user account name? I didn't simply export and import the machines because I wanted to keep snapshots. Before reinstalling Windows I had VirtualBox 4.3.26 or maybe 4.3.24. If it wasn't current then it was close. Currently I have version 4.3.26.

Have you been copying xml files around? Don't. Delete the VirtualBox.xml you copied, then :-

1. Move the <olduserdoc>"\VirtualBox VMs\*" folder tree in its entirety to <newuserdoc>\"VirtualBox VMs\".
2. Register each VM by choosing Machine|Add... in the GUI and then selecting the .vbox file for the VM.

If you keep the VirtualBox VMs folder in a neutral location (e.g. I keep it on drive D:) then the VMs can be accessed by multiple user accounts and step 1 can be skipped in future.

Thank you. Your advice worked. I found the VirtualBox.xml file in %userprofile%\.VirtualBox . My Windows 8 VMs had two vbox files. My guess is I updated the operating systems to 8.1 and changed the OS type for the virtual machines to 8.1 in VirtualBox.

I noticed a hiccup. Not sure it's related to starting a new VirtualBox.xml files and adding the machines. Some ISO files are attached to snapshots and the ISOs can't be removed. Not sure where I put the ISO files. The Remove option in the right-click menu is greyed out. Maybe VBoxManage will help me remove the ISOs from from the snapshots.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, it is not that easy, as it involves editing the xml file (.vbox) with a text editor and manually removing the missing ISOs. If you can attach a zipped version of the .vbox file here, I could take a look at it.