Windows 2000 in VM Under Win 7??

[zzz2496]

That is new... hmm... I'll look around for it...
I don't know if this related or not, but you CANNOT run XP Mode at the same time as VirtualBox.

zzz2496

 

[Jeffs]

I'm not running another VM.

I'm in the process of pulling the saved vmdk file off my external drive to see if that fixes it. When I clicked settings a few moments ago it told me some of my settings were messed up. Like I had no netowrk adapter, USB support was missing, etc.

We'll see what happens in 10 minutes when it's done copying.

 

[Jeffs]

The backup copy makes no difference. The screw up is somewhere else.

Here is what I get when I look at the settings. The network adapter is gone and can't be selected.

 

[zzz2496]

Hmm... what the heck did you do to your VirtualBox installation? What did you do between yesterday (when everything was fine and working) and now? Virtualbox doesn't just broke down like that... Unless you poke the wrong "buttons" at the wrong time.

zzz2496

Edit: The missing "Network" drop down box items are from your network interfaces list. In my computer, I have 2 Nvidia network interface, one is online, one is not. It will list the one that's not online to be used as a "dummy" network.

 

[Jeffs]

I agree, VirtualBox itself is broken. I tried deleting the existing VM and making a new one using the vmdk file, but got the same thing.

What did I do? This morning I installed a bluetooth USB adapter in the machine, along with it's driver software, that's about all. This shouldn't have affected VirtualBox, it has nothing to do with it, and wasn't even running.

What I can do is uninstall VirtualBox, and install it again. I suppose I can do that now, I have about a half hour before I go home.

 

[Jeffs]

-Uninstalled VirtualBox.

-Reinstalled it. No crash.

-Started VM. Blue Screens in VM window.

-Deleted VM. Created new VM, using existing vmdk file - you know the one that was CURRENT.

-Started VM. It started. When it finally booted it was back to 640x480x16 color, all programs I uninstalled are BACK AGAIN as if I never uninstalled them.

WTF? This file I used was saved YESTERDAY when everything was perfect. It's as if the data I'm using is coming from someplace else and is not this vmdk.

So I'm back to square one again. All the network settings are gone, all the old programs are back, the video driver is gone, gone gone gone.

Great way to end a Friday.

I'm going home. Have a good weekend!

 

[Jeffs]

Well, here it is Monday. I've got to sort this out. What happened? Why did I have to reinstall VirtualBox? Where did my data go? It's obviously NOT stored where I thought it was, in the vmdk file that's specified in the cofiguration.

 

[Jeffs]

OK, everything back to normal again. Networking reset, Vbox Additions reinstalled, graphics reset, even installed the Vbox mouse additions and they work OK this time. Uninstalled applications again.

I need to back this up! I can't loose it again. The question is what gets backed up?
I'll be looking to see if I can figure it out. Anyone else that knows, chime in.

 

[zzz2496]

Jeffs, don't rely on ANY "backup" programs just yet, literally copy the .vmdk to another place, MD5 hash it, and make sure that you put some date info somewhere on your backup...

zzz2496

 

[Jeffs]

The vmdk is not where the data is being stored. That's where it "originates" and it hasn't changed since I wrote that file to the drive. What appears to be happening is the data is saved in a "difference" file, a file that just contains the differences from the original at:
C:\Users\[username]\.VirtualBox\Machines\Windows 2000\Snapshots\{random string}.vmdk

I have three of these {******}.vmdk files in that folder, but only one appears to be the "active" one, the others are aborted attempts, and the one that went "sour" last Friday. From what I can tell, I can delete the ones that aren't in use - which I'm going to try right now before I get started for the day and can still do an image restore if I fubar.

Also in that "Machines" folder is a "Windows 2K" folder and a "Windows 98" folder. The "Windows 2K" folder is also early attempts, from which I was calling the VM "Windows 2K" - that can go too I think. The "Windows 98" folder just got created yesterday when I started working on my W98 VM, but there's nothing significantly in there as this VM appears to b using the original .VHD file in MyDocuments for everything (unlike the Windows 2000 machines).

NONE of this seems to follow anything I researched online yesterday telling me the virtual machines were stored in .VDI files. Not the case at all here.