Hello everybody!
Watch this video to find out how to recover data from the hard disk of a VirtualBox virtual
machine.
How to create such a virtual machine, take a snapshot, and revert the machine to that
snapshot.
VirtualBox offers you a free and easy way to create a virtual machine and run Windows,
Linux or any other operating system along with your main OS without having to use any
extra hardware or equipment.
In today’s video, I’m going to show you how to create such a virtual machine in Windows,
how to take snapshots, and how to restore its previous state if something goes wrong.
Also, you’ll learn how to recover data if restoring the operating system didn’t go
as planned, or if the virtual machine refuses to boot.
You will be able to recover accidentally deleted virtual disk files (VDI) or snapshot files.
A VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) file works just as if it was a physical hard disk, and it
can store your data just as well.
When several operating systems are installed on a single PC, the program will create a
VDI file for each virtual machine as well as additional files, when snapshots are taken,
or when additional virtual disks are connected.
This aspect should be taken into account in case of recovery.
How to create a Windows virtual machine in VirtualBox
To create a virtual machine, you need to install VirtualBox, and find an ISO image of the operating
system which you are going to use.
For starters, open VirtualBox.
In the program’s window, click Machine - New.
In the next window, specify the virtual machine name and operating system type; if necessary,
you can modify the folder where the virtual machine should be stored -
and click Next.
Now choose the amount of RAM - it should be at least half of the system memory installed
on this computer - Next.
In the following window, choose the option to create a new virtual hard disk and click
Create.
If you’d like to open a virtual disk that already exists, choose the last option.
Now specify the disk type – VDI, VHD, VMDK; if you don’t need to use the disk with other
virtualization software, leave this setting without changes and click Next.
If you access the Expert Mode, more disk types will appear – HDD, QCOW, QED.
At the next stage, choose the storage type – dynamically allocated or fixed size.
Set the size of the virtual disk and click Create.
After that, you will see the program’s main window.
Right-click on the machine and open its Settings.
Jump to the tab System – Processor, and increase the number of allocated cores.
Then open Storage, click on the disk icon, go to the tab Attributes and select the option
“Choose a disk file.”
Give the path to the ISO image of Windows 10 – OK.
After that, run the virtual machine by clicking on the green arrow-shaped Start button.
When it starts, the installation of the operating system begins just as if it was a conventional
PC.
When it’s over, you’ll be able to use the virtual machine.
How to take a snapshot of a virtual machine VirtualBox lets you take snapshots of your
virtual machine.
To take a snapshot on a currently running virtual machine, find the menu at the top
of the program’s window and open the tab Machine, then choose Take Snapshot.
Give it a name, add a description if necessary, and then click OK to save it.
Now you have a snapshot of this machine representing its state on a certain date and time, for
recovery in case of a failure or accidental removal.
You will be able to restore your machine to its state at the time when the snapshot was
taken.
How to restore a virtual machine to its previous state
To roll the virtual machine back to its state fixed in a snapshot, go to the tab Machine
- Tools - Snapshots.
Select the snapshot from the list (you can look at the names and dates to understand
which one you need) and click Restore.
Decide if you want a snapshot of the current state of the virtual machine, and check this
box below, then click Restore.
Then run the virtual machine and check it for the files that have been lost.
How to recover virtual disk files (VDI) If you have accidentally removed a snapshot
or a virtual disk file (VDI), you can bring them back with the specialized data recovery
tool - Hetman Partition Recovery.
If the machine was removed without deleting files, it’s very easy to restore it by clicking
Machine – Add.
However, if you deleted the files, it takes a special utility to bring them back again.
Download, install and run the utility.
Right-click on the disk where virtual hard disk files were stored and start the scan.
Try Fast scan first.
Open the folder which used to contain virtual hard disks and check if the files you are
looking for are now there.
By default, this is the path to find VDI files.
C:\\Users\\User name\\VirtualBox VMs\\Virtual machine name
Snapshot files are stored in the folder with the same name - Snapshots.
If the Fast scan can’t find the necessary files, then go for Full analysis.
To do it, right-click on the disk - Analyze again - choose Full analysis - specify file
system type - click Next and Finish.
Select the files you want to restore and click Recovery.
Choose the disk where to save them and click Recovery again.
In the end, you will find the recovered files in the folder you have chosen.
Now you should add the disk to the virtual machine, start it and access the files you
were looking for.
How to add an existing disk to the virtual machine
To add a disk to the virtual machine, choose the option “Use an existing virtual hard
disk file” when creating a machine, give the path to the file
and click Create.
When the machine is ready to use, click on the Start button.
If you also managed to restore a .vbox file containing virtual machine settings, to add
a virtual machine you should click Machine – Add, give the path to the file – click
Open, and then it will appear on the program’s list.
How to recover data if the virtual machine won’t boot
If the virtual machine refuses to boot, or displays an error at startup that cannot be
fixed, remember that our program supports data recovery from virtual hard disks of various
hypervisors.
The list includes such file extensions as VDI, VHD, VHDX, vmdk, .hdd, *.qed, *.qcow
and others.
In my case, virtual hard disk files are kept in a NAS system (network-attached storage).
That’s why I’ll show you how to recover data from virtual disks (VDI) over the network.
Start the program, click Tools – Mount Disk.
There are two ways to mount it: choose a RAW disk image if necessary, or choose Virtual
Machines.
After choosing the second option, you can see the list of files and tools that our program
supports.
Check the corresponding image type; in our case, this is VirtualBox, the file extension
– VDI, and give the network path to the folder where virtual hard disk files are stored.
Network – Archive – VirtualMachine – VirtualBox.
When you have given the path to the required directory, click to select the folder.
The program will display all virtual machine files which exist in such folder.
As you can see, there are disk files and snapshots, i.e. copies of the virtual machine state on
a specific date.
The disk file which is currently in use by the virtual machine will be marked as “Active.”
Check the box next to the disk you are interested in, and click Next.
If you need to recover data of a snapshot, check the box next to it - you can easily
find this file by its name and date.
After you have selected the folder, the mounted disk will appear in the Drive Manager immediately.
Right-click on it - Open.
Select the scan type, and choose “Fast scan” for starters.
If the “Fast scan” can’t find the required files, then go for “Full analysis.”
Right-click on the disk - “Analyze again” - “Full analysis” - and specify the file
system for this disk.
Then go to the folder where the lost data used to be stored, and look for the ones you
need to restore.
Select them and click “Recovery,” choose the disk and folder, and click “Recovery”
again.
Conclusion To make users’ lives easier, our program
features the option to search for files by their names.
Also, you’ll be able to preview the file contents to make sure that this is the actual
file you need.
The program’s ability to operate over the network simplifies the recovery process, as
you don’t need to arrange additional disks for copying VDI files to your computer, and
this way you can save both time and resources.
Just mount the disk files over the network and start the scan.
The only serious disadvantage is that if your network connection gets interrupted, you will
have to run the scan again when the connection is restored.
That is all for now!
Hopefully, this video was useful.
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Leave comments to ask questions.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.