How to make a virtual machine with .vdi file

Question

Recently I lost everything on my PC and reinstalled Windows. But I have my old Ubuntu virtual machine's .vdi file.

Can I make a virtual machine with that .vdi file? If so, how?

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 27 '21 at 07:48

8

If you are using VirtualBox, then it is not too difficult to take a VDI and use it anywhere. Here's how:

copy your .vdi file to a directory where VirtualBox will be able to access it
run VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine
choose Ubuntu Linux as the operating system and click "Next"
under the "Virtual Hard Disk" option, choose "Use existing hard disk". This will open the "Virtual Media Manager".
in the Virtual Media Manager, click the "Add" button and select the .vdi file that you copied, then click "Next"
configure the rest of the virtual machine as you would like it to be
start the virtual machine

So long as the .vdi file has not been corrupted, it will work just fine.

answered Apr 27 '21 at 07:48

matigo

1

Well written. +1 – C.S.Cameron Apr 27 '21 at 08:10
I got an error when adding .vdi file 'Could not get the storage format of the medium 'C:\Users\NO-NAME\VirtualBox VMs\Ubuntu.vdi' (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED).' – Aesha Amoli Apr 27 '21 at 09:38
Can you delete the .vdi file after you create the VM? – Daniel W. Jan 08 '23 at 03:18
1

@DanielW. the VDI file is used as the storage device, so deleting the file will delete all the data contained within. – matigo Jan 08 '23 at 04:21

C.S.Cameron · Answer 2 · 2021-04-29T07:01:05.277

4

Convert VDI File to Full Install

You also have the option to convert a .vdi file to an .img file and flash that to HDD or USB.

VBoxManage clonemedium --format RAW ubuntu.vdi ubuntu.img

This will create the Ubuntu image file

Install Image File to target drive

Caution: The target drive will be overwritten.

Use Gnome-Disks, Etcher, Rufus, dd or mkusb when you want to restore or clone the image to another HDD or USB drive.

For using Etcher or Rufus to flash an image to HDD see: https://askubuntu.com/a/1333112/43926

edited Apr 29 '21 at 07:01

answered Apr 27 '21 at 08:06

C.S.Cameron

with this can't I make a new virtual machine – Aesha Amoli Apr 27 '21 at 09:39
@Aesha Amoli: This answer is to give you an option to be able to run your old virtual machine from a USB or from a HDD. matigo's answer is the one you asked for, mine is just an option. – C.S.Cameron Apr 27 '21 at 09:47
ohk then i have to live boot it and get all deleted files, am i right? btw 'VBoxManage clonemedium --format RAW ubuntu.vdi ubuntu.img' isn't working on cmd – Aesha Amoli Apr 27 '21 at 10:04
Are you running it from within the folder that has the .vdi file? "ubuntu.img" should be changed to the name of your image file – C.S.Cameron Apr 27 '21 at 10:44