virtualbox.org

Hi

In order to upgrade from 4.3.30 to 5.0.10 I was in another post told to un-install 4.3.30 first.
What happens during un-installation? Particularly I do not want to delete my virtual machines.
The manual is too brief here.

1) Do I need to move the virtual machines to some "safe place" or
just rename folders or something, before the un-installation procedure.

2) Do I need to prepare the virtual machine somehow for transfer to ver 5.0.10?

3) I run on all Macs OS X 10.10.5 but my machines are from: 2014, 2011-mid, 2008-late
Actually I use Vbox most on the oldest MBP and slightly worried that VBox ver 5 may have
problem with the older hardware. See nothing in the manual about hardware constraints though.
Plan to upgrade to OS X 11 later.

Thanks

Uninstalling software never affects your data. A VM is data to your host.

Just to add, if you can run OSX 10.10.5 on your hosts and therefore can run OSX 10.11, you would have no problem with VirtualBox. As long as you have enough RAM which apparently you do now, and the performance is acceptable which apparently it is, you'll have no problems updating VirtualBox.

To answer your questions in order:

1) You should be able to update in place to the newer version of VirtualBox without doing an uninstall. But, when jumping from one major release to another, in this case 4.x to 5.x, it might be best to uninstall the old version first (using the Uninstall Tool in the dmg you downloaded that contains the VB installer), restarting the host, and then installing the new version. This will make sure that all the bits of the old version are gone and you're starting clean with the new release. The uninstaller just removes the VB application and the drivers (kexts), it leaves your virtual machines and their settings files alone. As mpack said, it's the same as updating any other program, it updates the software but doesn't touch the documents (your VMs). To be on the safe side, you should always backup your VMs first before doing any update to the VB application (preferably onto more than one backup media), not because something bad is likely to happen, but as insurance if something does.

2) No. There's nothing special you need to do to the virtual machines before updating. After you install you'll want to also install the matching Extension Pack on the host, and the matching Guest Additions in the guest.

3) If your Macs are currently capable of running VB version 4.x then they are able to run 5.x. I don't believe 5.x consumes appreciably more resources than 4.x. If you followed my advice to backup before updating you can always revert if you stumble onto a bug or other problem that nobody has reported yet. When you update the OS of your host you should also consider following Apple's advice and make a backup of your whole hard drive first.