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Error opening vdi file recovered from a failed computer

Posted: 25. May 2020, 22:57
by kinskas
Recently my laptop crashed and refused to boot up again. Luckily I had a backup of everything and also managed to grab the .vdi file for my Ubuntu 18.04 VM before factory resetting my PC.

Now I am trying to open the vdi file on a newly downloaded copy of VirtualBox, but I encounter an error that I do not understand.
Could not open the medium 'D:\VirtualBoxVMs\Ubuntu_18.04\Ubuntu_18.04.vdi'.
VDI: error reading v1 header in 'D:\VirtualBoxVMs\Ubuntu_18.04\Ubuntu_18.04.vdi' (VERR_EOF).
VD: error VERR_EOF opening image file 'D:\VirtualBoxVMs\Ubuntu_18.04\Ubuntu_18.04.vdi' (VERR_EOF).


Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
MediumWrap
Interface:
IMedium {ad47ad09-787b-44ab-b343-a082a3f2dfb1}
How can I access my VM again?

Additional info:

Host: Windows 10 (64 bit)

Re: Error opening vdi file recovered from a failed computer

Posted: 25. May 2020, 23:45
by scottgus1
Sounds like the file is bad or truncated.

Run it through Mpack's CloneVDI and try to clone it. If CloneVDI can't make sense of the file, it's dead.

FWIW, the vdi is only the disk file, it is not the whole VM. The .vbox file is the 'rest of the computer'. The two files go together. If there is a Snapshots folder, take that too.