VirtualBox Servers Missing

[TDurham]

Hi All,

I've logged into virtualbox this morning and my virtual servers have all gone missing. I don't have any restore points and checking my VirtualBox VM's Folder it is showing as empty. I have weeks of work saved on that server...have I lost it?..where is the data stored...is there any way I can recover this or should I just cry?

[scottgus1]

Have you logged on as the same user as you were using when you made the guests? Virtualbox requires you stay on the same user account. (There's some ways around this, but I'm not sure what they are.)

[TDurham]

I only have the one user account on this laptop...and haven't logged in as a guest...:/

[scottgus1]

OK. So when you open the Virtualbox GUI :

VB GUI.png (64.28 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

all the guests that used to show on the left pane are gone?

[TDurham]

Yes..all I get is a welcome message as if I'd just installed!

Welcome to VirtualBox!
The left part of this window is a list of all virtual machines on your computer. The list is empty now because you haven't created any virtual machines yet.
In order to create a new virtual machine, press the New button in the main tool bar located at the top of the window.

[loukingjr]

FWIW, VirtualBox cannot spontaneously remove all or any VMs from the VM Folder.

[TDurham]

They don't exist anymore....and I changed nothing....think I'm screwed.

I have a VirtualBox.xml-prev and VirtualBox.xml in my .VirtualBox folder....
but VirtualBox VM's is empty.

[loukingjr]

You may have a corrupt disk catalog. You might want to try repairing the HD.

[scottgus1]

Try going to the folder "C:\Users\[YourUserName]\.Virtualbox" There should be a file in there called Virtualbox.xml and one called Virtualbox.xml-prev. If the .xml is missing but the .xml-prev is there:

1. Reboot the host
2. Don't restart Virtualbox
3. Make a copy of the Virtualbox.xml-prev and rename the copy to "Virtualbox.xml" Don't damage or do anything to the original "Virtualbox.xml-prev"
4. Start the Virtualbox GUI.

Edit - I just noticed your response to Lou. You have both files. Rename Virtualbox.xml to Virtualbox.xmlold, then make the copy of Virtualbox.xml-prev and rename as above.

[scottgus1]

Another thing to try is searching your PC for any files with the extension .vbox
If you find any, report back.

[TDurham]

Have tried the above and it hasn't worked.

The contents of my xml file are...

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!-- ** DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE. ** If you make changes to this file while any VirtualBox related application ** is running, your changes will be overwritten later, without taking effect. ** Use VBoxManage or the VirtualBox Manager GUI to make changes. -->

-<VirtualBox version="1.12-windows" xmlns="">


-<Global>


-<ExtraData>

<ExtraDataItem value="general,preview,system,display,storage,audio,network,usb,sharedFolders,description" name="GUI/DetailsPageBoxes"/>

<ExtraDataItem value="m=58a91747-b5b1-472a-86e6-cd93fcadc557" name="GUI/GroupDefinitions/"/>

<ExtraDataItem value="575,245,770,550,max" name="GUI/LastWindowPosition"/>

<ExtraDataItem value="390,1525" name="GUI/SplitterSizes"/>

<ExtraDataItem value="3" name="GUI/UpdateCheckCount"/>

<ExtraDataItem value="1 d, 2015-10-02, stable, 4.2.0" name="GUI/UpdateDate"/>

</ExtraData>

<MachineRegistry/>


-<MediaRegistry>

<HardDisks/>

<DVDImages/>

<FloppyImages/>

</MediaRegistry>


-<NetserviceRegistry>


-<DHCPServers>

<DHCPServer enabled="1" upperIP="192.168.56.254" lowerIP="192.168.56.101" networkMask="255.255.255.0" IPAddress="192.168.56.100" networkName="HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter"/>

</DHCPServers>

</NetserviceRegistry>

<SystemProperties LogHistoryCount="3" webServiceAuthLibrary="VBoxAuth" VRDEAuthLibrary="VBoxAuth" defaultHardDiskFormat="VDI" defaultMachineFolder="C:\Users\Tim Burton-Durham\VirtualBox VMs"/>

<USBDeviceFilters/>

</Global>

</VirtualBox>

[scottgus1]

What's in the "Virtualbox.xml-prev"?

[TDurham]

Posted above....

[scottgus1]

Above says it's your xml file. Are you sure your really posted the xml-prev?

make a zip file and put both the xml and xml-prev in it. and post it as an attachment.

Meanwhile, how's the .vbox search coming?

[TDurham]

Here's the xml files...my search .vbox has come up empty...