Mac – Could not find an open hard disk with UUID {….} on VirtualBox 4.1.2

snapshotvdivirtual machinevirtualbox

Guest: Ubuntu
Guest VM Name: WordPressThemeDevBox
Host: Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
VirtualBox Version: 4.1.2 r73507

I shut off my guest and removed the Current State snapshot using the Restore Snapshot button.

After the process completed I returned to the Oracle VirtualBox Manager and the following error was displayed in the right hand panel:

The selected virtual machine is inaccessible. Please inspect the error message shown below and press the Refresh button if you want to repeat the accessibility check:

Could not find an open hard disk with UUID {73231db-6014-4c49-b092-eac75c33f31d}
Result Code: VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80BB0001)
Compoent: VirtualBox
Interface: IVirtualBox {c28be65f-1a8f-43b4-81f1-eb60cb516e66}

I checked in %USERPROFILE%\.VirtualBox\Machines\WordpressThemeDevBox\Snapshots\ and the vdi file {73231db-6014-4c49-b092-eac75c33f31d}.vdi is present in that directory.

I also found this thread over at the VirtualBox forums, but it's refering to version 4.0.4 and they keep talking about a .vbox file which I can't find in my 4.1.2 installation.

Additionally I found a bug pertaining to version 4.0.4 that appears similar to what I am experiencing.

Is there any way of fixing this using VBoxManage or editing one of the xml files like VirtualBox.xml or WordPressThemeDevBox.xml?

Additionally here is more information via paste-bin:

Best Answer

I was thinking whether I should ask this question myself since these posts all have 'accepted answers' .

I actually know the answer to this question but I saw so many work-a-rounds and solutions requiring lots of time and effort to accomplish a good result and unfortunately those questions had answers that were marked as solutions. All that is fine as they do work, but I wanted to post what I believe is an easier solution.

The key is that the HardDisk uuid must match the ImageID uuid of the storage medium

<HardDisk uuid="{ba913c05-aac5-4245-a0c9-4baaf7719377}" />


<AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" hotpluggable="false" port="0" device="0">
          <Image uuid="{ba913c05-aac5-4245-a0c9-4baaf7719377}"/>
        </AttachedDevice>

So there it is in a nutshell ..

Close shutdown any running VM's, close the VirtualBox manager. Backup your .vbox file , and yes I know there is one already but do it again to be sure you have a good copy as of right before you changed stuff!

Open your .vbox configuration file for the VM you are having trouble with. Edit the storage medium uuid to match your hard disk uuid (not the other way around).. Save the file. Start the VM and you will be up and running. Hope someone else finds it helpful.

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