What is Oracle VM VirtualBox, and what does it allow you to do?

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free and open-source virtualization software package developed by Oracle Corporation. It allows users to run multiple operating systems on one computer, and to create virtual machines and containers. It supports a wide variety of guest operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, Solaris, and BSD. It also supports a wide range of hardware platforms, including x86, x86-64, and ARM architectures. With VirtualBox, users can run multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single machine, allowing them to test different software configurations, run multiple applications at the same time, and even use different operating systems for different tasks.

How can you lose data in a VirtualBox virtual machine?

Data can be lost in a VirtualBox virtual machine if the hard drive is not properly backed up or if the virtual machine is shut down improperly. Additionally, if the virtual machine is infected with malware or a virus, it could corrupt or delete data.

What are the most common causes of VirtualBox data loss?

Accidental Deletion: Accidentally deleting a VirtualBox file or folder can cause data loss. Corrupted Files: Corrupted files can be caused by hardware failure, power outages, or software bugs. Hardware Failure: Hardware failure can cause data loss in VirtualBox if the hardware is not properly backed up. System Crash: System crashes can cause data loss if the VirtualBox system is not properly backed up. File System Corruption: File system corruption can cause data loss if the VirtualBox file system is not properly backed up.

How can you prevent data loss in VirtualBox virtual machines?

Use snapshots: VirtualBox allows you to take snapshots of your virtual machine, which can be used to restore the machine to a previous state in case of data loss. Use backups: Regularly backing up your virtual machine is a good way to protect against data loss. You can use the built-in backup feature in VirtualBox or use third-party backup software. Use redundancy: You can set up redundant virtual machines in VirtualBox, which will allow you to quickly recover from data loss if one of the machines fails. Use encryption: You can encrypt your virtual machine’s hard drive to protect against data loss in case of theft or unauthorized access. Use secure connections: Make sure that you are using secure connections when transferring data between your host machine and the virtual machine.

What are the different types of VirtualBox virtual machine files?

VirtualBox Disk Image (.vdi): This is the default virtual machine file type used by VirtualBox, which stores all the contents of a virtual machine’s hard disk. Open Virtualization Format (.ovf): This is an open standard for packaging and distributing virtual appliances or virtual machines. It is supported by many virtualization platforms, including VirtualBox. Virtual Machine Disk Format (.vmdk): This is a disk image format used by VMware virtualization products. It can be imported into VirtualBox and used as the hard disk for a virtual machine. Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (.vhd): This is a disk image format used by Microsoft virtualization products. It can be imported into VirtualBox and used as the hard disk for a virtual machine.

Recover Oracle VM VirtualBox Data

Author: Vladimir Artiukh
Editor: Oleg Afonin
Updated: 7.05.2024 16:09

Learn how to recover data of Oracle VM VirtualBox virtual machine (.vdi, *.vmdk, *.vhd, *.hdd, *.qed, *.qcow) with ease in this comprehensive guide. Discover step-by-step instructions and essential tips to seamlessly recover your valuable virtual machine data. Dive deep into Oracle VM VirtualBox virtual machine data recovery techniques and explore insider strategies to maximize your chances of successful data restoration.

Contents

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💻 How to Create an Oracle VirtualBox Virtual Machine and Recover Data from a VDI Disk in 2021 ⚕️

System Files of Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual Machine

Similarly to any other virtual machine, during installation Oracle VM VirtualBox creates a directory where it places folders of virtual machines which you create later. By default, this folder is named VirtualBox VMs and can be found here:

C:\Users\UserName\VirtualBox VMs

Note: you can change location of the virtual machines folder in the program settings if necessary. To do it, go to File / Preferences / General and specify the folder you want to place virtual machines in.

The main files of an Oracle VM VirtualBox virtual machine are as follows:

*.vbox – a settings file describing the virtual machine and its settings;
*.vdi (*.vmdk, *.vhd, *.hdd, *.qed, *.qcow) – the file containing a virtual machine disk image

While the virtual machine is running, the program can create additional files or folders if necessary:

Logs – the folder containing virtual machine log files
Snapshots – the folder containing virtual machine snapshot files (images of the virtual machine condition)

When a virtual machine is created, the default disk format is DVI. However, a user can choose the disk format for the machine being created

VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) — VirtualBox disk format
VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) — VMware disk format
VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) — Microsoft disk format
HDD (Parallels Hard Disk) — Parallels disk format
QED (QEMU enhanced disk) — the format for QEMU/KVM
QCOW (QEMU Copy-On-Write) — the format for QEMU (qcow2)

How to Recover a Deleted Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual Machine

Deleting a virtual machine can result in losing large volumes of data and important information, and recovering it can be really difficult. The easiest way to recover the data stored in the virtual machine will be recovering the virtual machine itself.

What does it mean? VirtualBox provides for the opportunity of adding virtual machines which were created with other managers, or which were saved and then deleted, for some reason, from the virtual machine list of your manager. To do it, you should go to the menu Machine / Add and choose the disk of the virtual machine which you need to add to the manager.

Machine / Add and choose the disk of the virtual machine which you need to add to the manager

That is, if a virtual machine is deleted, the user can recover the files that make it up and add such machine into Oracle VM VirtualBox. To do it:

Run Hetman Partition Recovery and scan the disk where the virtual machine was stored
Use Hetman Partition Recovery to go to the folder where the virtual machine was deleted from.
Recover the virtual machine files
Add the virtual machine to Oracle VM VirtualBox using the method above and launch it

How to Recover the Hard Disk Contents of an Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual Machine

As we have already said, all files stored in virtual machine disks are located in .vdi files of the virtual disk (in our case). Hetman Partition Recovery, the program for hard disk data recovery, has the function of mounting virtual disks and recovering data from such disks.

Partition Recovery™ 4.9

The tool recovers data from any devices, regardless of the cause of data loss.

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NOTE. In case of dealing with virtual machines, the disks of which are created in formats other than *.vdi, but in formats like *.vmdk, *.vhd, *.hdd, *.qed, *.qcow, the method for recovering data will be similar.

All files stored in virtual machine disks are located in .vdi files of the virtual disk

If for some reason your virtual machine is no longer working, and there are important files on its disks, this data can be recovered. To do it:

Run Hetman Partition Recovery and mount the virtual machine disk

Note. To mount a virtual disk with the help of Hetman Partition Recovery, click on Mount Disk in the quick access menu of the program. As a result, the window of choosing a virtual disk will open. In the right lower corner, specify the file type as «All files (*.*)», go to the folder containing the virtual machine and choose the required .vdi file.
As you do that, the section «Mounted Disks» containing the list of mounted virtual disks will appear in the window, where all disks found by the application are shown. If you mount several disks, you will see the entire disk list there.
Scan the disk with the application by double-clicking on the disk in the disk manager.
After the analysis, the application will show the directory tree of the scanned disk. Find and recover the required files.

If you looked through the directory tree and you still don’t see the files which you need to recover, or if such files are recovered but they open with errors, then go to the folder Content-Aware Analysis shown by Hetman Partition Recovery and find your files there.

NOTE. In case of dealing with virtual machines, the disks of which are created in formats other than *.vdi, but in formats like *.vmdk, *.vhd, *.hdd, *.qed, *.qcow, the method for recovering data will be absolutely similar.

How to Recover the Disk File of an Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual Machine from the Virtual Machine Itself

As a result of experiments we have established that files deleted or lost inside the virtual machine cannot be recovered.

The methods we have described for recovering data of an Oracle VM VirtualBox virtual machine are good for virtual machine regardless of their virtual disk format: *.vdi, *.vmdk, *.vhd, *.hdd, *.qed, *.qcow and they will be absolutely similar for all of these virtual disk formats. In this article, we have used the *.vdi virtual disk format as an example.

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🔷 How to Recover Data of an Oracle VM VirtualBox Virtual Machine 🔷