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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?

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last time you ran the VM was it shut down correctly? – madmaze Jan 21 '11 at 20:09
prolly not, I think it had a power out shutdown – Eric P Jan 21 '11 at 20:31
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Can you boot it with an ISO then either repair the OS installation or retrieve your files? – Cheeto Jan 21 '11 at 21:44

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

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.

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Can confirm this worked for me. Created a new VM using the same VDI. Up and running again. – user727382 Feb 4 '12 at 5:23
up vote 0 down vote

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

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up vote 0 down vote

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

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Could you explain this in more detail please? I would really appreciate it. – picxelplay Apr 5 '12 at 10:04

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