Again I ran into that problem since so many years I have used VirtualBox: The harddrive is full.
Many years ago I had the same problem and I only remember that it has been somewhat difficult to get my systems running again.
Ever since then I always have a large dummy-file on my 512 GB-SSD with the two machines (Win 10 x64) and the snapshots. But this time that file (more than 10 GB) was just not large enough: After deleting it I could delete one single most recent snapshot of one of my two virtual machines and have now 23 GB free on that SSD. But still I am not able to delete any other snapshot (usually I have four of them for each machine; one or two of them before I made relevant changes - like an upgrade to a newer version of Win10 or before installing Office 365 etc.)
Do I really e. g. have to move my snapshots to another drive and create a hardlink or buy a larger SSD and clone the date from the one I have been using so far?
Thank you!
Bernd
Still no solution for problems with 'full disk' (with 23 GB free)?
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bernddasbrot
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 11. Apr 2020, 11:20
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mpack
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 39134
- Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
- Primary OS: MS Windows 10
- VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
- Guest OSses: Mostly XP
Re: Still no solution for problems with 'full disk' (with 23 GB free)?
What do you mean "still"? VirtualBox has no problem with "full disk" that I know of, unless the problem you refer to is that you can't store more data on a full disk: I don't expect that will ever be "solved". It shouldn't surprise you that VirtualBox gives you the warning before the disk is 100% full. I guess I would pick 90% or something like that.
If you don't want a problem with "full disk" then don't create a VM on a host drive that doesn't have space for the VM disk capacity you chose.
Howto: Move a VM.
If you don't want a problem with "full disk" then don't create a VM on a host drive that doesn't have space for the VM disk capacity you chose.
Howto: Move a VM.
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bernddasbrot
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 11. Apr 2020, 11:20
Re: Still no solution for problems with 'full disk' (with 23 GB free)?
Well I thought that I did provide enough information - this was a problem for many years now and apparently still is:
I am running my VMs on a 512 GB-SSD, received no warnings (neither from VirtualBox, nor from Windows 10 x64 on the host nor the guest) at all and then Windows 10 on one of two VMs was upgraded to a more recent build - with no problems too. (Btw - I am usually running only one VM at a time.)
After that I checked that the new Windows build seems to be running smoothly and then I wanted to delete an older snapshot to make a new one without the risk of running in the full-disk problem - but wasn't able to delete such an older snapshot.
And as I had written before I already had to learn many years ago that I need to keep a large dummy file to be able to solve such a problem - but this time that large file (I always use a renamed copy of a vdi-file, this time I think it was around 17 GB) was not big enough to delete more than the most recent snapshot of one of my two VMs. If 23 GB of free space are not enough to free more space by deleting other snapshots it would indeed be of much help if a warning would be displayed.
(At work I am using VMware Workstation Pro with loads of VMs and even more snapshots - and never ran in such a problem. I was always able to free space by deleting snapshots and without the need to have a large dummy-file ready to be deleted in such a case.)
I am running my VMs on a 512 GB-SSD, received no warnings (neither from VirtualBox, nor from Windows 10 x64 on the host nor the guest) at all and then Windows 10 on one of two VMs was upgraded to a more recent build - with no problems too. (Btw - I am usually running only one VM at a time.)
After that I checked that the new Windows build seems to be running smoothly and then I wanted to delete an older snapshot to make a new one without the risk of running in the full-disk problem - but wasn't able to delete such an older snapshot.
And as I had written before I already had to learn many years ago that I need to keep a large dummy file to be able to solve such a problem - but this time that large file (I always use a renamed copy of a vdi-file, this time I think it was around 17 GB) was not big enough to delete more than the most recent snapshot of one of my two VMs. If 23 GB of free space are not enough to free more space by deleting other snapshots it would indeed be of much help if a warning would be displayed.
(At work I am using VMware Workstation Pro with loads of VMs and even more snapshots - and never ran in such a problem. I was always able to free space by deleting snapshots and without the need to have a large dummy-file ready to be deleted in such a case.)