I have a virtual Windows 7 computer using VirtualBox on a Linux host. How can I mount this virtual pc's harddisk (VDI file) in Linux? It's a dynamic file, meaning that it only takes up as much space as is actually used.

link|improve this question

61% accept rate
I also want to know more about this. So far, the only way I coul dsee would be to actually start the VM, setup a shared directory, and put files there. – jfmessier Sep 3 '09 at 12:45
1  
This is a duplicate of the question: serverfault.com/questions/210684/…. – Isaac Sutherland Nov 26 '11 at 23:33
@IsaacSutherland This question is more than a year older than that one. – Bart van Heukelom Nov 27 '11 at 15:06
@BartvanHeukelom The top-ranked answer at the serverfault.com question works for me. Should I have copied thkala's answer to this thread? – Isaac Sutherland Nov 28 '11 at 2:44
feedback

4 Answers

VDI is a complex format and AFAIK there's currently no software that can directly mount a dynamic VDI image, although there are plenty to converting it from/to other formats.

I hope to be wrong (or be wrong in the future, such as when someone writes that piece of software) and I'll take a look at this thread just in case ;-)

link|improve this answer
feedback

I always wanted to know, if I could do that. Here is a very informative link >> http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=4748.

So it seems you can mount only fixed sized VDI files in both windows and linux.

link|improve this answer
feedback

I came across this page while looking for a way to mount dynamic VDI files. I'm still looking. There is a commercial product available for Windows called WinMount that claims to do it. This doesn't help me (or you), but may help others who also stumble upon this web page.

link|improve this answer
feedback

it looks like vdfuse is the tool you are looking for. At least for Ubuntu (and possibly Debian) hosts. If you want to compile yourself (2010 source) you can do that too. Sources seem to be here.

link|improve this answer
feedback

protected by Diago Dec 21 '10 at 17:55

This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.