[Solved] VDI file in a different partition

[Paul Abrahams]

I have several virtual machines in ~/.VirtualBox/VDI, but now my /home partition is running short of space. I have plenty of space in a different partition, though, so I'd like to set up another virtual machine elsewhere. I tried creating a VirtualBox directory in a partition with lots of space and creating a symlink to it from ~/.VirtualBox/VDI/VirtualBox, and then creating a new VM in ~/.VirtualBox/VDI/VirtualBox. However, I still get the VERR_DISK_FULL message when I try to do that.

So how can I create a vdi file outside of my /home partition?

[TerryE]

Just release the VDI from the VM and unregister it (Do not delete it. Then move the VDI to your new partition and then use the GUI disk manager to pick up the existing VDI in new location and then add it back to the VM.

If this is the only VDI that you have, then you can use the GUI preferences option to change the home location of the VDI directory.

[Paul Abrahams]

The problem I have is that I can't create the VDI in the first place, so there's nothing to unregister. If the VDI creator could parse the case where the specified location is in a symlinked folder my problem would be solved, but the test for sufficient disk space seems to be performed on the partition containing the VDI directory in all cases.

[TerryE]

?? Don't use symlinks. Either change the location of your VDI folder in your preferences as I said, or just specify an explicit path in the Virtual Disk Manager -> Create New Virtual Disk -> Virtual Disk Location and Size (The little folder icon with a ^ on it, allows you to browse to the directory that you want to use.)

[Paul Abrahams]

Thanks - specifying the location explicitly did the trick. I was under the mistaken impression that all vdi's had to be in the same directory.