virtualbox.org

Hello. I am using Virtualbox version 5.1.8 which contains a Windows Server 2008 guest host with several snapshots saved. Restoring a selected snapshot works and the guest host is restored to the particular saved state, but if I restart windows inside the guest host, the state goes back to how it was before the snapshot was restored.

Is it possible to reboot without the guest host going back to how it was prior to the snapshot restoration?

Lets get rid of that clumsy "guest host" construction first of all. In VirtualBox your physical PC is the host. The VM is the also called the guest. Nothing is called "guest host". I assume you are talking about a Windows guest - despite posting in the "Windows Hosts" forum. So I'll move the topic.

You also seem to be confusing the terminology of snapshots with the terminology of saved states. These are separate features (*), though it is true that if the VM had a saved state associated with it at the time of taking a snapshot, then that saved state becomes part of the snapshot - and it will be restored along with the rest of the snapshot state elements.

If you don't want a saved state to be restored, then don't save the state prior to taking the snapshot: take the snapshot live or fully shut down the guest before snapshotting.

I'm still not sure I'm getting your full meaning. Reboots are irrelevant to the snapshot feature. Saved states on the other hand are different: obviously if you reboot any PC then it will reboot, it will not "restore" a past saved state... so I'm having difficulty understanding what your expectations were.

(*)
A saved state, a.k.a. hibernation file, is where a PC dumps the contents of RAM memory and CPU registers to a file, and later restores same from said file. The point is to start the PC faster, but because you didn't do a full boot it carries the risk of not initializing things properly if the hardware changed (if you upgrade VirtualBox, the virtual hardware can change). The saved state is created by user choice when the VM window is closed, and restored when the VM window is opened again.

A "snapshot" stores all the currents settings of a VM, plus the current contents of all disk drives (except write through drives). This is not hibernation and does not preserve the contents of RAM. A snapshot can be created at any time and does not have to involve closing the VM. A snapshot is like a "restore point" on a Windows host.