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Is it possible to repair a corrupt VDI file? The OS on the VDI (XP) doesn't boot at all, it just hangs at a black screen. I was getting file errors before on its last boot, but now its not working at all.

Sector viewer shows 'Invalid partition table Error loading operating system Missing operating system'. I tried mounting the file from the host OS, but it just says that the drive isn't formatted. I don't need to be able to run the VDI, but I do need some files that are on it.

Is there any way to recover files from the corrupt VDI file?

Tamara Wijsman
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Eric Packwood
  • 277

3 Answers3

14

Most of the time a crash while running a VM with VirtualBox will corrupt the profile, not the VDI.

Try making a fresh profile and add the existing VDI as the disk. You could also try a scandisk on the host system if you haven't.

Beanstalk
  • 156
3

In my case the VDI crashed within a new profile too.

Do the following steps to rescue data:

  1. create a new profile with your .vdi to rescue as a harddisk
  2. download a linux live CD (like puppy, xubunu...) and add it as a live-cd image to the new profile
  3. start the VM
  4. mount the .vdi file (in my case it was sda2) and rescue your files as you like (send them as email to yourself)

have fun

julez
  • 31
0

mounting the drive somehow to retrieve your files would be your best option. I don't know of any repair solutions for a VDI file, but I did stumble across this:

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=2097

NoCarrier
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