[Solved] Hard disk data loss

[whatdhack]

This is the second time I have experienced data loss on VM reboot. Fortunately , I have saved my work on repositories. But, any package install etc , had to be installed . The extent of loss was immense - any update from Feb 25 to May 10 are gone from my drive (VDI) !! The host is Windows 10 and the guest is Ubuntu 16.04 .

Is this a known issue ?

[socratis]

You'll definitely have to give more details about your setup, but let me additionally ask you a question: did you lose the whole VDI or did the VM revert to an earlier state? This, again, to more complete and thorough description of your setup, the circumstances and the exact errors. See: Minimum information needed for assistance. Plus a lot more than the basics if you want us to have any idea about what's going on.

You can't simply throw a "hard disk loss", "is this a known issue?" and expect any serious answer. Of course it's not known that VirtualBox loses its data.

[whatdhack]

Sure, I would like more information myself. Tell me how to get those . Is there a log or journal file I can poke at ?

Looks like it reverted to a earlier state - can not tell for sure .

[socratis]

You didn't read the link, did you?

[whatdhack]

Here you go. Looks like files are too big for both upload, hence zipped.

Happened when VirtualBox was updated and hence the VM needed to be rebooted.

VBoxManage --version
5.1.22r115126

Guest additions - not really sure whether today's upgrade took care of it .

Host - Windows 10 Pro 64 bit - 32G
Guest - Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit - 8G

[socratis]

Looks like it reverted to a earlier state - can not tell for sure

Happened when VirtualBox was updated and hence the VM needed to be rebooted.

Although from the logs you don't seem to be using snapshots, it sounds very suspicious that you either had a saved state that you discarded or something similar.

In any event, reverting to a previous state is far and away from hard disk data loss. Your virtual hard disks are fine, it's something else that you did to revert to a previous state.

BTW, I didn't say to concatenate all the logs in one fat text file and zip that. That make my life more difficult...

[mpack]

Common error. The OP was running the VM in live CD mode, suspending after every use. Then he rebooted the VM. If you look at the VDI file I'll bet it's tiny - never been used.

[socratis]

Yeap, I thought of that too, but 1) the LiveCD is not there and 2) there are three hard disks attached to the VM (ubuntu-xenial-2Copy.vdi, ubuntu-xenial-mnt2.vmdk and ubuntu-xenial-2.vdi) which shows some setup way and beyond the basics of booting a LiveCD.

The thing is that the snapshots option doesn't seem that has been used at all (File system of 'C:\linux\ubuntu\Snapshots' (snapshots) is unknown), so I can't make too much out of it either.

It definitely sounds like a revert-to-previous state, but only the OP could shed some light on how and what exactly they did.

[mpack]

but 1) the LiveCD is not there

Well, that will certainly kill a liveCD boot!

Anyhoo, that's normal. The common error is as I described, suspending the VM doesn't require the liveCD to be still present. In fact to install any apps you have to take it out.

[whatdhack]

There is no LiveCD, and no snapshots. It was just reset of the VM, that is all I did - may be I should have done ACPI Shutdown instead .

[mpack]

No, it wasn't a bolt from the blue, nor any other kind of magic. From what you've described you were using liveCD mode, whether you knew it or not.

Answer me this: are you in the habit of suspending your VMs? If you answer no then I'll believe it wasn't liveCD mode.

[whatdhack]

It is a laptop , hence yes I suspend the VM before closing the lid, else the VM gets clobbered when the lid is closed .

[mpack]

Shutting the VM down is also an option. Doing that would have revealed live CD mode sooner, as that too is a reset of the VM and would also cause your data to be lost. Therefore I knew this couldn't be something you did often (practically never).

[whatdhack]

So what is the what is the recommended way to handle this ? Shutting down the VM every time I close the laptop lid ? That is not reasonable , is it ?

[socratis]

You seem to misunderstand the whole premise. You were running in LiveCD mode, suspending the VM the whole time. If you had rebooted the VM you would have found yourself in the same position. Your VM was transient as long as it was not shut down. Once you did, you reverted the VM to its defaults. If you had shut it down earlier, the problem would have been revealed earlier.

BTW, lid or not, I never suspend my VMs. It takes a max of 1 min and I can have my peace. Plus it "resets" the VM.