media manager in 4.0.0 does not have add media option

[N2Deep]

In VirtualBox 4.0.0 virtual media manager there is no 'add' option. Therefore you can not create new virtual disks for machines that are currently powered on. This is a serious problem because thick provisioning disks can take a long amount of time, for large disks.

To create a new virtual disk one must first power down a vm, then 'edit settings' This is blocking because you -can not- edit settings while a virtual machine is running.

A vm must be powered down to create a new -disk- for any vm in 4.0.0.

The work around right now is to create a 'junk vm' just so you can create a new disk for a vm that is currently running. Once disk is provisioned, poweroff the virtual machine you really want the new disk for, edit settings and attach the disk you created for the 'junk vm'. Now remove the junk vm and select 'remove only' when it asks about what to do with the files for junk vm.

[guntbert]

In my opinion the goal of storing the VDisks in the directory of the VM could be achieved from virtual media manager as well.. (and I'm not at all certain that it is a good idea).

[luxifer]

I second that. This is just dump. I guess Oracle finally hits VirtualBox after hitting OpenOffice.org and Java. But hey: At least it's completely open source now and some people will eventually fork it in the near future - leading it to a whole new level (hopefully). Plus there are more serious problems with that release: insane memory leaks for example.

But there's a trick: drag and drop the vdi file into the manager. Doesn't work always though. Sometimes I had to completely restart VirtualBox (i.e. Stopping ALL VMs, closing the manager and killing VboxSvc.exe if still there and then starting VirtualBox again) to be able to do this. And even then VirtualBox doesn't always remember the setting.

[Jason]

I third that. I don't see why you would cripple functionality in the GUI while leaving it in the CLI. Backwards progress is the wrong sort of progress.

[Frank Mehnert]

The media manager will get more functionality in the future. The add disk function will be restored but it will be possible to create more disk formats, not only .vdi like before.

For the time being (if you need to create a disk in the background), do it by creating a new VM or by editing a powered down VM. This is only a workaround but it works.

[Brian Leonard]

I have to add my support here. It makes documenting how to use VirtualBox much more difficult.

[positron96]

I find deletion of this feature very uncomfortable too. This feature-cut and ​http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/8212 heavily limit usefullness of Media manager; however, it was very useful in previous versions. In 4.* versions image management is not so user-friendly and convenient.

[Frank Mehnert]

Actually the 'add disk' functionality is more tricky than it seems. Disk images (as well as CDROM/DVD images and floppy images) are stored in the per-VM settings file. The media manager only lists all media of all VMs and allows to manipulate them. But an 'add medium' function in the media manager would require to specify the VM to which the medium belongs to.