VDI location using TC errors

[HiAll]

Hi there,


Im new here and spent literally hours trying to get my WIn 7ISO in VB to work in my TC hidden volume. Im using win7 64bit on the host (previously had win8) and my AMD-V is enabled. When I finally get it to load and install windows (happy) and close it. I then move my .vbox from C: to my hidden volume and try to boot from my TC hidden volume by clicking on the .vbox file I moved.

Then this warning sometimes: It says fatal: cannot boot from this medium. I try to open it again and it gives me warning that "one or more of my virtual hard disk, floppy, cd-dvd cannot be accessible...". I got another message saying something about UUID is networked or path is on another .vdi or .vbox. I created many different .vbox/vdi to get it installed and must of deleted a dozen of them. I also installed and reinstalled VB dozen of times. Only yesterday was I able to install windows then I close it and try to move the .vbox to my TC hidden volume and i get this problem. I also noticed my windows was super slow. I gave it enough memory 3G's so I dont know whats causing this. Any thoughts?


Also, does it matter when you initially install windows its with 25GB volume and when when windows finish installing the .vdi is only about 8.5GB and not 25GB? Should I try to uninstall and re install it again? Is this reason why its so slow? Any thoughts?

[HiAll]

I have multiple logs and it wont let me attach them with added numbers in the back somewhy? Hope this helps, thank you.

[HiAll]

Uninstalled and reinstalled VB. Now the error is this:

Failed to open virtual machine located in G:/Win 71.vbox.

Trying to open a VM config 'G:/Win 71.vbox' which has the same UUID as an existing virtual machine.

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Machine
Interface: IMachine {480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048}
Callee: IVirtualBox {fafa4e17-1ee2-4905-a10e-fe7c18bf5554}

[scottgus1]

TC = Truecrypt, yes? Silly question, I know, but you didn't by chance mount your Truecrypt volume read-only?

[HiAll]

Thanks for that but I tried that and still the same error: Anyone?

Failed to open virtual machine located in G:/Win 71.vbox.

Trying to open a VM config 'G:/Win 71.vbox' which has the same UUID as an existing virtual machine.

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Machine
Interface: IMachine {480cf695-2d8d-4256-9c7c-cce4184fa048}
Callee: IVirtualBox {fafa4e17-1ee2-4905-a10e-fe7c18bf5554}


Someone please advise...

[HiAll]

Also, does anyone know where to get a clean Win7 SP1 ISO? The windows download page doesnt offer it anymore.

[mpack]

... moderator standing by to ban anyone who answers that question with a warez link! Really, you need to be asking Microsoft about "where to buy".

[HiAll]

Ok, Sorry about that. Didnt know. Also, is this even the right place to ask troubleshoot questions? Im still having problems. Been on this for over 12 hours trying to read/fix this. Found a tourble ticket:

Ticket #12205 (closed defect: fixed)

"Changed 16 months ago by JDBurnZ

@frank, your question is a bit irrelevant. It doesn't matter to an end user *why* an error is being encountered, the fact is there is an error being thrown resulting in undesired / unexpected behavior.

"<inaccessible>" errors are generally encountered when the VM's configuration itself is no longer found due to data loss, renaming of a parent directory, or the file itself being deleted.

Until this is resolved in a future update of the VirtualBox application, here is a workaround:

Locate and edit your VirtualBox.xml file. Depending on your set up and operating system, this could be in a number of places.

If running windows, try looking in C:\Documents and Settings\[your-username]\.VirtualBox\ or C:\Users\[your-username]\.VirtualBox\
If running on a MAC, try looking in: [your-hardrive]/Users/[your-username]/Library/VirtualBox
Once you've located the file, edit it in your favorite text editor and find the line under <MachineRegistry> matching the name of the <inaccessible> VM you wish to remove. Delete the line and save.

You may need to make sure VirtualBox is closed before editing and saving the file."


I cannot even find the Virtualbox.xml in the VB folder section. Even in my TC hidden volume I cant find it?

Tried this too:

"Changed 18 months ago by mscottford

I found a work around for this issue, that does not require downgrading to 4.2.x.

You can use the command line VBoxManage tool to remove inaccessible VMs. To get a list of VMs run:

VBoxManage list vms
The inaccessible ones will show up similar to:

"<inaccessible>" {52a91e62-096d-4f8b-96f4-5fa76db3cd76}
Now you use the GUID in the unregister command:

VBoxManage unregistervm {52a91e62-096d-4f8b-96f4-5fa76db3cd76}"


How does one access cmd line on VboxManage tool? Is this a separate install? Also, am I even in the right direction? My IT guy cant even figure this out. He never used VB before either. Pls advise....

[scottgus1]

Troubleshooting here on the forum is the right place for Virtualbox issues. The trick is finding someone who has guests inside a Truecrypt volume. (Again, still hoping TC means Truecrypt - no confirmation on that question yet. And I wasn't recommending to make your volume read-only - that would have cut off the ability of the guest to write to its own disk, which Virtualbox and a guest OS need to be able to do. I was recommending checking that you didn't have the volume set read-only).

With all the moving around and uninstalling and reinstalling going on, your setup is likely quite bunged up now. I'd recommend, seeing as you're looking for a "clean" Windows 7 iso, and inferring that you'd be willing to reinstall Windows 7 in the guest, that you do so. Just clear away all the stuff that is the old guest, release/remove everything in Virtualbox related to that guest, and start over. This time, mount your volume first, in writable mode, and point the Virtualbox default guest folder location in that volume - see Virtualbox GUI, File menu, Preferences, General. (Make sure to use the same drive letter for the volume each time you mount it.) Then create your new guest as normal, right in the volume. Guest memory should never be more than half of the host memory.)

Performance of the guest within this "TC volume" is possibly going to be less than the guest would have on an unencrypted disk (assuming TC means Truecrypt...) because the guest's data has to run through the encrypter routine before getting written or read. The amount of performance impact probably won't be alterable at a particular level of encryption, but if you change the encryption you might be able to get faster reads & writes.

The first error "one or more of my virtual hard disk, floppy, cd-dvd cannot be accessible" possibly means Virtualbox couldn't find it. Or it was locked for use by something else. something about the move wasn't done right. See "Moving a VM" viewtopic.php?f=35&t=55003

The second error "Trying to open a VM config 'G:/Win 71.vbox' which has the same UUID as an existing virtual machine." means that the vbox file you're clicking on is for the moment actually trying to register the guest with Virtualbox, not start it. There's already a guest with that UUID registered (your guest where it was located before) and Virtualbox won't allow two guests with the same UUID. Clicking the vbox file will launch the guest if it is already registered properly (I didn't know that, learned something new today) but clicking the vbox will also attempt to register the guest if the vbox file is new or is in a different location than the place it was in when it was clicked the last time. This second usage is what's happening when you're clicking the vbox file now, and why you're getting the error. The "Moving a VM" link shows how to properly move the guest so this kind of error doesn't happen. Also, you can make a shortcut to start the guest by right-clicking the guest in the Virtualbox GUI and picking the "Create Shortcut on Desktop" option. The shortcut will only attempt to start the guest and will only show errors relating to starting the guest, not like the vbox file, which has the two possible actions described and may show errors relating to either action, possibly confusing the problem.

[HiAll]

OK, managed to find the virtualbox.xml file and tried following this tutorial:

"Changed 16 months ago by JDBurnZ

@frank, your question is a bit irrelevant. It doesn't matter to an end user *why* an error is being encountered, the fact is there is an error being thrown resulting in undesired / unexpected behavior.

"<inaccessible>" errors are generally encountered when the VM's configuration itself is no longer found due to data loss, renaming of a parent directory, or the file itself being deleted.

Until this is resolved in a future update of the VirtualBox application, here is a workaround:

Locate and edit your VirtualBox.xml file. Depending on your set up and operating system, this could be in a number of places.

If running windows, try looking in C:\Documents and Settings\[your-username]\.VirtualBox\ or C:\Users\[your-username]\.VirtualBox\
If running on a MAC, try looking in: [your-hardrive]/Users/[your-username]/Library/VirtualBox
Once you've located the file, edit it in your favorite text editor and find the line under <MachineRegistry> matching the name of the <inaccessible> VM you wish to remove. Delete the line and save.

You may need to make sure VirtualBox is closed before editing and saving the file."


I get this message:

:Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object.

The application will now terminate.



Couldn't find end of Start Tag MachineEntry line 26.

Location: 'C:\Users\TOSHIBA/.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml', line 26 (26), column 20.

F:\tinderbox\win-4.3\src\VBox\Main\src-server\VirtualBoxImpl.cpp[534] (long __cdecl VirtualBox::init(void)).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: VirtualBox
Interface: IVirtualBox {fafa4e17-1ee2-4905-a10e-fe7c18bf5554}"


This is the virtualbox.xml file. Which line do I delete? Here is the code: There are a few <machineregistry> I tried deleting it four different times and still cant get the guest VB to run win7.

[scottgus1]

Still recommending you remove any references to that guest in the Virtualbox GUI and start over. Right-click the guest button in the GUI, choose Remove. You can keep or delete the files as you desire.

Start with a brand-new guest as recommended above, with the default Virtualbox guest folder set to be in an already-mounted TC volume. You'll get around all the "inaccessible" stuff that way.

As a test I un-registered one of my guests, moved it into a Truecrypt volume and re-registered it with Virtualbox from within the volume, and it booted just fine.

[loukingjr]

I have multiple logs and it wont let me attach them with added numbers in the back somewhy? Hope this helps, thank you.

because the forum doesn't understand the extensions .1, .2, .3 I would imagine. If you compress them first the forum does understand extensions such as .zip

[HiAll]

Troubleshooting here on the forum is the right place for Virtualbox issues. The trick is finding someone who has guests inside a Truecrypt volume. (Again, still hoping TC means Truecrypt - no confirmation on that question yet. And I wasn't recommending to make your volume read-only - that would have cut off the ability of the guest to write to its own disk, which Virtualbox and a guest OS need to be able to do. I was recommending checking that you didn't have the volume set read-only).

With all the moving around and uninstalling and reinstalling going on, your setup is likely quite bunged up now. I'd recommend, seeing as you're looking for a "clean" Windows 7 iso, and inferring that you'd be willing to reinstall Windows 7 in the guest, that you do so. Just clear away all the stuff that is the old guest, release/remove everything in Virtualbox related to that guest, and start over. This time, mount your volume first, in writable mode, and point the Virtualbox default guest folder location in that volume - see Virtualbox GUI, File menu, Preferences, General. (Make sure to use the same drive letter for the volume each time you mount it.) Then create your new guest as normal, right in the volume. Guest memory should never be more than half of the host memory.)

Performance of the guest within this "TC volume" is possibly going to be less than the guest would have on an unencrypted disk (assuming TC means Truecrypt...) because the guest's data has to run through the encrypter routine before getting written or read. The amount of performance impact probably won't be alterable at a particular level of encryption, but if you change the encryption you might be able to get faster reads & writes.

The first error "one or more of my virtual hard disk, floppy, cd-dvd cannot be accessible" possibly means Virtualbox couldn't find it. Or it was locked for use by something else. something about the move wasn't done right. See "Moving a VM" viewtopic.php?f=35&t=55003

The second error "Trying to open a VM config 'G:/Win 71.vbox' which has the same UUID as an existing virtual machine." means that the vbox file you're clicking on is for the moment actually trying to register the guest with Virtualbox, not start it. There's already a guest with that UUID registered (your guest where it was located before) and Virtualbox won't allow two guests with the same UUID. Clicking the vbox file will launch the guest if it is already registered properly (I didn't know that, learned something new today) but clicking the vbox will also attempt to register the guest if the vbox file is new or is in a different location than the place it was in when it was clicked the last time. This second usage is what's happening when you're clicking the vbox file now, and why you're getting the error. The "Moving a VM" link shows how to properly move the guest so this kind of error doesn't happen. Also, you can make a shortcut to start the guest by right-clicking the guest in the Virtualbox GUI and picking the "Create Shortcut on Desktop" option. The shortcut will only attempt to start the guest and will only show errors relating to starting the guest, not like the vbox file, which has the two possible actions described and may show errors relating to either action, possibly confusing the problem.

Scott,

Thank you for such a thoughful post. Wish I could tip you some crypto currency like Reddits or btc. I released/removed the related to the guest and started over and it boots up after a few trys. I then save and shut it down. Close VB and opening it in the hidden volume using the .vbox file. Doesnt open. Then I click on the desktop VB icon and it opens up. Do I have to manually release/remove the vdi everytime I start up? When I release/remove it doesnt start up. I seen videos of guys just clicking on.vbox then VB started up just fine. What am I doing wrong?

[scottgus1]

No, you should not have to release/remove each time you want to use the guest. Use the shortcut or start the guest in the GUI instead of clicking the vbox file. It will help limit the kinds of errors you may get.

Only thing I could see as a problem to look out for is to make sure that the TC volume is mounted before you open the Virtualbox GUI. Same as if you had a guest on an external removable drive - if the drive isn't attached when Virtualbox is opened, the GUI will report the guest's files as missing or inaccessible or whatever the GUI calls it. The drive has to be there before Virtualbox looks for the guest, then Virtualbox should be happy.

[HiAll]

Still recommending you remove any references to that guest in the Virtualbox GUI and start over. Right-click the guest button in the GUI, choose Remove. You can keep or delete the files as you desire.

Start with a brand-new guest as recommended above, with the default Virtualbox guest folder set to be in an already-mounted TC volume. You'll get around all the "inaccessible" stuff that way.

As a test I un-registered one of my guests, moved it into a Truecrypt volume and re-registered it with Virtualbox from within the volume, and it booted just fine.

I tried three times and everytime the vbox file gets made in the C: and not in the hidden volume drive where I directed the install of the vdi. Also, noticed the default VB guest folder automatically gets created in C: when I create a new VB guest win7 so whenever I move it to hidden volume to start it again it doesnt open due to the UUID being the same.

Then I search some more and see this:
"
The basic procedure for moving VMs created by VirtualBox v4.0.0 or later is to copy the VM folder (with contents) to your preferred location, then use the GUI's Machine|Add menu item to register the .vbox file (found in the VM folder) from its new location."

So, I go to GUI machine and add the menu item to register the .vbox from its new location in the hidden volume and get this same UUID. So irritating! EHHHHhhhhh
Sorry, I really had to vent, lol. How does one register the .vbox file that has been moved from its original location in C: to hidden volume to launch? My TC hidden volume is always opened first. Thank you Scott and if you can help me fix this I will gladly tip you some btc, cheers.