How to make a working clone of a resized vdi? SOLVED?

aemau · Post by **aemau** » 14. Jun 2008, 21:26

I admit to being paranoid about software updates particularly operating systems so I always begin by creating a multiple boot system where I can try out everything before committing my working system to the update. I'm about to update my system to Suse 11.0 but before I do I want to make sure that my XP virtual machines will continue to work properly. So I would like to clone one or more of my vdi files and test them on Suse 11 to make sure everything is alright before I make a final decision.

Unfortunately, the vdi I'm most concerned about was recently increased in size using techniques found elsewhere in this forum and I find that I'm now unable to clone either the original or upsized vdi file.

The VB documentation alludes to a problem with cloning and the way (UUID) VB identifies the hard drive from which the system is loaded and suggests changing the grub configuration and fstab (if memory serves me correctly) but that doesn't seem to apply to my case where I continue to use device names in fstab.

Is there any way around this problem?

Allan

Post by **TerryE** » 14. Jun 2008, 21:51

See http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 5931#25931

aemau · Post by **aemau** » 14. Jun 2008, 22:17

I don't think that applies. I'm afraid I wasn't specific enough in my original post. I have no trouble making a clone. The problem lies in making one that works. My expanded vdi works fine but the clone crashes with the blue screen of death when I try to use it. The clone of the unexpanded drive works fine and I simply don't understand why.

Allan

aemau · Post by **aemau** » 14. Jun 2008, 22:20

I also forgot to mention that I tried the mergeide on the cloned expanded drive without success.

Allan

torentash · Post by **torentash** » 15. Jun 2008, 00:14

I cloned it by using this tutorial. it works fine up to now. http://www.giannistsakiris.com/index.ph ... lbox-disk/ . hope this helps

aemau · Post by **aemau** » 15. Jun 2008, 18:56

I tried that, it doesn't work. I'm really at a loss to explain what's going on.

I have two virtual disks. One was created under VB 1.56 if I recall correctly. I can easily clone that disk.

The other was created under VB 1.56 (probably earlier) then resized under VB 1.6. The resized version works fine. But, I can clone, copy, image that disk but not one of the new versions will work (blue screen of death every time).

I wish someone could tell me what's going on. Two virtual disks, both working perfectly but only one of them can be cloned.

aemau · Post by **aemau** » 16. Jun 2008, 00:30

I should be more specific and mention that when I say clone I mean not only to create a new or copied virtual disk but having one that actually works.

Allan

aemau · Post by **aemau** » 16. Jun 2008, 01:09

I hope this wasn't a fluke but I printed out and examined the xml files for the virtual disk I couldn't seem to clone successfully and its copy and found that the IDEcontroller settings differed. When I changed the copy setting to match that of the original suddenly everything worked. It just never occurred to me that this might cause a problem since I had never had a problem cloning disks in the past. So for the moment at least my major problem of not being able to make a working clone of my main vdi file seems to be solved. Sorry to waste the bandwidth folks but perhaps my experience may help others.

Allan

Post by **TerryE** » 16. Jun 2008, 19:59

Thanks, This saved me some head scratching. I current do all my hosting on XP of Linux VMs, but I am about to go down this path when I refresh my XP system. I have vowed not to touch Vista, so I will be swapping over my host OS to Ubuntu Hardy, but keeping an XP VM for the few things that won't move over native or run under WINE. (And yes my XP license isn't an OEM one for those who wonder.)

The main challenge isn't producing a valid NTFS copy of your physical VM, it's getting the XP bootstrap process to tolerate the new virtual H/W configuration.