Saturday, April 16, 2011

VirtualBox: Could not find an open hard disk with UUID

My VirtualBox sometimes shows a dialog box that says:

"One or more virtual hard disks, CD/DVD or floppy media are not currently accessible."

My virtual machine becomes inaccessible. Details show this error:

Could not find an open hard disk with UUID {5bad2863-64d0-40a2-a394-7442e3a6adc7}.
Result Code: VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80BB0001)

This happens when a snapshot is removed, then another snapshot is made and the host computer crashes (e.g. freezes during hibernation). After this, there is a reference to a non-existing HardDisk in the configuration file "~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml". This needs to be updated with the real value. The last working situation can be found in the log file (e.g. "~/.VirtualBox/Machines/<...>/Logs/VBox.log")

00:00:01.330 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/Config/] (level 6)
00:00:01.330   Format   = "VDI" (cb=4)
00:00:01.330   Path     = "/data/vmware/winvm/{5bad2863-64d0-40a2-a394-7442e3a6adc7}.vdi" (cb=62)
00:00:01.330   Type     = "HardDisk" (cb=9)
00:00:01.330
00:00:01.330 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/Config/Parent/] (level 7)
00:00:01.330   Format   = "VDI" (cb=4)
00:00:01.330   Path     = "/data/vmware/winvm/{cd71486f-ab71-4b03-9e2e-690d7ef76b9d}.vdi" (cb=62)
00:00:01.330
00:00:01.330 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/Config/Parent/Parent/] (level 8)
00:00:01.330   Format   = "VDI" (cb=4)
00:00:01.330   Path     = "/data/vmware/winvm/Windows XP flexible disk.vdi" (cb=48)


This shows reliably the structure (the snapshot and its parents are listed), so it can be reconstructed by editing the XML file accordingly.

12 comments:

  1. I have that exact problem. But aren't sure what to put where? an example would be great. thanks

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  2. You can send relevant parts of your log, like above, and of your VirtualBox.xml (inside <HardDisk> tags).

    We will create an example this way :-)

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  3. Do you see the list of HardDisks in the file "~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml"? Some of them need to be removed.

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  4. Hi,
    Thank you for this article; I have a question.
    In your example, the UUID in the error message is the same as the UUID in the logfile (you do not show your xml file which would also be useful for better understanding I guess).
    Based on the description I was expecting that in the logfile I'd find a different UUID which is the one that I'd need to add to my XML file overwriting the UUID that is shown in the error message.
    Could you please let me know where to get the good UUID from?
    Thank you,
    Jakab

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  5. Hi Jakab,
    maybe the explanation is not detailed enough.
    Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce it anymore with "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager 4.1.12_Ubuntu"... And I cannot find the "bad" XML file.
    Also when I try to post XML tags here, they are invisible. That is why I could not quote it more clearly...
    Anyway, I guess that the parent of the Harddisk was wrong, not the UUID that is mentioned in the error (or it was OK in the XML of the machine but not in the global VirtualBox.xml), I do not remember exactly anymore.
    And do not forget that you have to look at the last working scenario in the logfile, not just the last one.
    I could have a look at the XML that cause you problems.
    Martin

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  6. Thanks! Helped to solve my problem.

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  7. i have the feeling that virtualbox is crap and that i should use qemu -.-

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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