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Is there any way to transfer VirtualBox VMs, with their operating system and all their files intact, to another computer?

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As far as I understood, you want to transfer the virtual machines, not the installation of the VirtualBox software. Please correct me if I'm wrong. For the sake completeness you could tell us which operating system you have. – slhck Aug 10 '11 at 18:20
I have Windows 7 as my host and Ubuntu as the only guest. I will be using a completely different computer but I want to transfer everything I have on Ubuntu with all the files and apps if possible. – GTyler Aug 10 '11 at 18:46
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3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

Cloning a VirtualBox VM explains the cloning process on a Windows 7 64bit host cloning an Oracle Linux 5 64bit guest using Virtual Box 4.0, which I believe matches your situation more closely.

You can also take a look a the following articles for reference:

  1. Cloning a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox
  2. Clone a VirtualBox Guest VM
  3. Copying a VirtualBox virtual machine onto another host computer.
  4. How to copy and transfer or backup a Virtualbox Virtual Machine .vdi.
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Will cloning or copying it preserve all my files and apps in Ubuntu? – GTyler Aug 10 '11 at 20:01
Yes. Its an exact copy of your setup, including files and apps. I have updated the answer with an article more appropriate for your configuration. – Jay Mahendru Aug 10 '11 at 20:21
How can I check that it will work properly at other PC? I don't have m y future host PC with me now. – GTyler Aug 11 '11 at 22:46
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up vote 1 down vote

I'm not sure to understand what you're asking... If you're talking about the app, there isn't a workaround, you must reinstall it. Regarding the VMs, you can simply copy them to a the other computer, look for the directory where they're stored (Look in File->Preferences to find the Default VM Folder).

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up vote 1 down vote

Yes, what Host OS are you running? Did you store all the files and VMs in their default locations? If it's Linux it is easy to switch to another Linux, but moving from/to Windows is a bit involved.

Note that you must shut down all the virtual machines, not just sleep them or save their state. You must actually shut them down.

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