clonehd/clonevdi creating corrupted clones of VDI image => Fixed in SVN

[Thalic]

Cloning a dynamic VDI file using clonehd/clonevdi results in corrupt clone. The cloned VDI file is smaller than the original VDI file. Cloned Windows guest failed to boot. clonehd/clonedvi did not report any errors during cloning.

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Original VDI file was about 1.5GB, cloned file about 1.4GB. Trying to boot cloned guest resulted in following error message:

A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

After booting original VDI, it grew a bit to 1.6GB, clone created from this file was about 1.5GB. Trying to boot cloned guest resulted in following error message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file. 

Cloning the original VDI into a VDMK image did not cause any of the aforementioned problems.

Other forum user mentioned same problem and downgraded to 2.0.6 for testing and reported that problem is not present in 2.0.6.

Host: Windows XP SP3
Guest: Windows XP SP2 (right after installation, no updates installed)
Original VDI image created on VirtualBox 2.1.0

Forum thread: ​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=50519

[rainbow]

The other day, I tried to create a backup clone of the Windows XP guest OS and it had no effect at all. The progress bar just stayed at 0% all of the time.

I'm hoping that Sun fixes the glitch that causes hard disk images to not be cloned properly. Until then, it's best that you use the Windows NT Backup utility.

[wallace]

I can tell the same bug about the clonehd command with the same characteristics as the first post.

I hope it could be fixed as soon as possible.

[Sagattarii]

Same here :( Version 2.1.0

Linux Host, Windows and Linux Guests.

Workaround: Copy it by hand and then use "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid file.vdi" to set a new uuid.

[rainbow]

Replying to sagattarii:

Same here :( Version 2.1.0

Linux Host, Windows and Linux Guests.

Workaround: Copy it by hand and then use "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid file.vdi" to set a new uuid.

A better idea would be to wait until a new version of VirtualBox comes out. ^_

[Philip Verstraeten]

Replying to ppgrainbow:

Replying to sagattarii:

Same here :( Version 2.1.0

Linux Host, Windows and Linux Guests.

Workaround: Copy it by hand and then use "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid file.vdi" to set a new uuid.

A better idea would be to wait until a new version of VirtualBox comes out. ^_

Worked as a charm ! Thanks...

[aeichner]

Fixed in svn. Thanks for the report.

[Thalic]

Excellent, thank you!

[rainbow]

Replying to Philip Verstraeten:

Replying to ppgrainbow:

Replying to sagattarii:

Same here :( Version 2.1.0

Linux Host, Windows and Linux Guests.

Workaround: Copy it by hand and then use "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid file.vdi" to set a new uuid.

A better idea would be to wait until a new version of VirtualBox comes out. ^_

Worked as a charm ! Thanks...

You're welcome! ^_

[Daniel Kulesz]

Same here - using clonevdi on a Linux image results in a non-bootable image where even the filesystem cannot be mounted.

Regarding this workaround: Are there any caveats in using "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid file.vdi" on a copied file compared to the intended way? I've seen clonevdi doing some sanity checks on the copied image, but apart from that - does it do more than copying the file and setting a new uuid?

[rainbow]

Replying to DanielKulesz:

Same here - using clonevdi on a Linux image results in a non-bootable image where even the filesystem cannot be mounted.

Regarding this workaround: Are there any caveats in using "VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid file.vdi" on a copied file compared to the intended way? I've seen clonevdi doing some sanity checks on the copied image, but apart from that - does it do more than copying the file and setting a new uuid?

I don't have the slightest idea.

The only way I did this was to perform a backup copy of the data on Windows XP guest onto my USB hard drive. I did that by using one of the shared folders on drive W.

The last time I made a backup of all of the data was on the 18th of last month and the WindowsXP.bkf file contains 7.34 GB worth of data...so, if something were to go wrong, I have the backup file with me.

So...the other choice is backup all of the data onto a shared folder incase something screws up.

[harld]

Problem persists in 3.2.8 - clonehd/clonevdi create copies with the correct (same) size as the original file, however they fail to boot a CentOS 5 host.

[Klaus Espenlaub]

harld, please create a new ticket for this apparently completely unrelated issue you're running into. Since others have no problems with cloning, you need to specify much more information (host OS/guest OS, VBox.log for a working and non-working VM, maybe a screenshot of the boot failure, and anything else you can think of which might be special about your setup).

[Stephen Helfen]

I have the exact same problem, but running 4.0.8. I have a working vdi on one system. I use the clonevdi command to create a new vdi. When I try to create a new machine on a new host with the cloned vdi, I get the following failure when attempting to start the machine:

A disk read error occurred. Press Ctl-Alt-Delete to restart

I have also tried using both the VBoxManage CLI and GUI application to export my application on the old system and am unable to do so. I get 'Could not create medium' errors.

The Virtual Machine runs completely normally on the old system.

[Frank Mehnert]

I'm not satisfied that this is really due to image corruption. Could you do the following test?

1. Clone the vdi file
2. Detch the original vdi file from the original VM
3. Attach the cloned vdi file to the original VM
4. Try to boot this VM

Also, when cloning the vdi, did cloning succeed or were there any errors during that operation? And do you know which version of VirtualBox created this vdi file?

[Stephen Helfen]

After some more investigation, I believe this issue is related to a conflict arising from the version that the original vdi file was created using. I believe I created the original guest on a VirtualBox 2.X version...but don't recall which one.

The biggest issue I see is that there is NO data for my existing vdi in the /home/users/VirtualBox VMs directory.

My existing guest ONLY has data in the /home/users/.VirtualBox/Machines directory. In this directory, I have a WindowsXP directory for my existing guest and a WindowsXP.xml file inside the directory, that I believe, is what would normally appear in the /home/users/VirtualBox VMs/WindowsXP directory as a WindowsXP.vbox file. This file simply does not exist for this machine.

Does that provide any insight to my problem?

[Frank Mehnert]

Please reopen if still relevant with VBox 4.2.6.