[Solved] VirtualBox crashes on restoring a .tib image using Acronis True Image 2014

[Tim85]

Hello,

I'm completely new here and have read the forum posting guide. So I hope I have provided the needed info in the way it should be provided.

VirtualBox Version 5.0.26 r108824 (PUEL)
Extension Pack 5.0.26r108824 installed
Host: Windows 10 Home 64 bit with 12 Gb of RAM
Guest: Windows 7 Pro 32 bit with 4 Gb of RAM

I have searched the forum but this did not deliver the answer to my question: How to transfer ALL the contents from a fixed size .VDI file of 100 Gb in to a new fixed .VDI file of 300 Gb ?

This is what I tried so far.
Some months ago I created a fixed size .VDI file of 100 Gb thinking this would be large enough for me. I chose a fixed size because it should deliver a better performance. Unfortunately the virtual hard drive has already reached 90 % of its capacity by now, so I need a lot more storage. Regrettably a fixed size .VDI file can't be enlarged. So I created an image (.tib file) using Acronis True Image 2014 from the guest OS. The first two attempts failled due to a crash of VirtualBox. The third was succesfull. So I created a new fixed .VDI file of 300 Gb. Now when I try to recover the .tib file in to the new 300 Gb, I keep on running in to the same error. I have attached a screenshot of the error along with the log file (in .ZIP format as asked in the Forum Posting Guide).

I looked the error up on Google, but since I'm not an IT-pro I honestly don't understand what the error means. So I hope somebody on this forum can help me to transfer the contents of my 100 Gb fixed size .VDI file to my new 300 Gb fixed size .VDI file.

Sorry for my bad Englisch. I'm dutch.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Kind regards.

Tim
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[socratis]

How to transfer ALL the contents from a fixed size .VDI file of 100 Gb in to a new fixed .VDI file of 300 Gb ?

Take a look at CloneVDI. It's fairly easy to understand and it does what you want to do quite easily

I chose a fixed size because it should deliver a better performance.

That would not be quite a true statement. Dynamic vs Fixed VDIs have not been shown to have significant speed differences. I'd say it's an urban legend, mostly on online fora or blogs with no concrete evidence that I'm aware of.

[mpack]

Just to clarify: CloneVDI always produces a dynamic VDI, because I don't want people to assume that fixed VDI is a useful feature.

Fixed VDI does not have a performance advantage, it just takes up more space. How could it have a performance advantage? The format is identical, the only difference is when the blocks are allocated.

[Tim85]

Hello socratis and mpack,

Thanks for your fast replies. I hope I can give Clone VDI a try tomorrow.

Indeed (as stated in socratis's post), a few months ago I have read on a blog that a fixed VDI should be faster. I have never used a dynamic VDI so I can't compare. But I will try a dynamic VDI now.

mpack, thanks for the clarification. Now I can use dynamic VDI files with peace of mind.

Sorry for my bad Englisch. I'm dutch.

Kind regards.

Tim
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[socratis]

Tim, let us know how it went. One thing; if you don't want to face activation issues and simply want to replace the old HD with the new one, check the "same UUID" (or something like that).

Your English is just fine, don't worry. I'm Greek

[Tim85]

Hello socratis,

Thanks for the tip. Today I finally got the time to give CloneVDI a try and I was able to successfully copy my old fixed .vdi-file in to a dynamic .vdi-file. The tool did not work on my Windows 10 (64 bit) laptop, but luckily did work on my old Vista (32 bit) desktop. So thank you for the tool.
Unfortunately a new problem showed up. Since I checked the "use same UUID"-checkbox, I now have two .vdi-files with the same UUID and as a result of that VBoxManage.exe can't register the new (dynamic) .vdi-file with this UUID. This means I am not able to enlarge the dynamic .vdi-file (using VBoxManage.exe). Moving the new file over to an other PC, which has also Virtual Box installed, oddly enough does not solve the problem. Can you please tell me how to fix this new problem ?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Kind regards.

Tim
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[socratis]

The tool did not work on my Windows 10 (64 bit) laptop, but luckily did work on my old Vista (32 bit) desktop.

I believe that the author of CloneVDI (mpack) would love to hear the details, so please post them.

VBoxManage.exe can't register the new (dynamic) .vdi-file with this UUID.

You have to release the old VDI from the VM, un-register the VDI in the Media Manager and then re-register the new one. It would be wise before you register the new VDI to move it in place of the original one. So, to summarize:

1. Detach the old VDI from the VM.
2. Unregister it from the Media Manager.
3. Rename the old VDI (or move it somewhere else) and move the new VDI in its place.
4. Add the new VDI in your VM.

[mpack]

My own home PC is Windows 10 Pro AE 64bit, so I know for a fact that CloneVDI works on it (*). Probably the OP had some kind of permissions issue with the source or dest folder, in which case the OS choice is a red herring.

(*) CloneVDI is a vanilla Win32 app, it works anywhere that WIn32 does.

[Tim85]

Hello socratis and mpack,

Today I finally succeeded in enlarging my former fixed size .vdi thanks to the help of you both. I really appreciate this.

Today I used CloneVDI again with the same parameters as last weekend to provoke the error I received back then. The screenshot of this is uploaded as attachment to this post.

Thanks to socratis for the step-by-step instructions to resolve the UUID-problem. The renewed VM is working fine now.

My own home PC is Windows 10 Pro AE 64bit, so I know for a fact that CloneVDI works on it (*). Probably the OP had some kind of permissions issue with the source or dest folder, in which case the OS choice is a red herring.

(*) CloneVDI is a vanilla Win32 app, it works anywhere that WIn32 does.

Sorry mpack but I do not understand this post. It's to technical for me. However, I can reassure you there's probably nothing wrong with your program because it works flawless and fast on my x86 Vista desktop. Since my laptop (Windows 10 x64) even spits out an error when I simply copy and paste the .vdi, I'm pretty sure the problem is caused by my operating system. The error is to technical for me. I uploaded a screenshot of it to make the picture complete.

Since my problem is solved, my last question is: "Do I have to mark this thread as solved in one are the other way ?"

Thanks and kind regards.

Tim
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[socratis]

Do I have to mark this thread as solved in one are the other way?

Done it for you. For future reference you edit the 1st post and updated the title.

[mpack]

Since my laptop (Windows 10 x64) even spits out an error when I simply copy and paste the .vdi, I'm pretty sure the problem is caused by my operating system. The error is to technical for me. I uploaded a screenshot of it to make the picture complete.

"Write error" (after successfully copying about 20GB) usually means that the destination drive is damaged, so you should probably get that drive checked out by someone before relying on it. "Write error" can't simply mean that it ran out of space, as CloneVDI checks available space before it starts.