Articles on the Internet have pointed to .virtualbox and VirtualBox VMs in my User folder (I'm using Windows 7), but they are so small that they can't store applications.
Is there a full-fledged directory tree of the guest OS stored somewhere on the host OS? On a related note, where is the guest OS itself stored?
12 Answers
I'm sorry to prove you wrong, but the online manual also says files are stored there: 10.1. Where VirtualBox stores its files
In VirtualBox, a virtual machine and its settings are described in a virtual machine settings file in XML format. In addition, most virtual machine have one or more virtual hard disks, which are typically represented by disk images (e.g. in VDI format). Where all these files are stored depends on which version of VirtualBox created the machine.
Assuming you're using version 4.0 or later, the guest OS' (and their virtual hard disks) are each stored in their own folder in the VirtualBox VMs folder in your user folder.
The global/general VirtualBox configuration files are store in .virtualbox.
As an example, when you create a virtual machine called "Example VM", you will find that VirtualBox creates
- the folder $HOME/VirtualBox VMs/Example VM/ and, in that folder,
- the settings file Example VM.vbox and
- the virtual disk image Example VM.vdi
However, there is an option in the preferences of VirtualBox where you can specify another location to store files to, if the default location isn't to your liking.
You can change the default machine folder by selecting "Preferences" from the "File" menu in the VirtualBox main window. Then, in the window that pops up, click on the "General" tab.
So maybe it's worth looking there and seeing which location is set.
Is there a full-fledged directory tree of the guest OS stored somewhere on the host OS? On a related note, where is the guest OS itself stored?
No, everything is stored in the .vbox and .vdi files. Logs and snapshots are stored in folders of the same name in the virtual machine directory.
To find out the location of these files, see below image:
You have a virtual machine with a virtual drive.
It works pretty much like any computer, hardware or virtual.
Think of the small file (.vbox) as being a BIOS and definition of the resources a hardware computer box would provide.
On standard computer hardware, the OS and installed applications all reside on the hard disk.
On a virtual machine, the OS and installed applications all reside on the virtual hard disk, if you use the VirtualBox standard virtual disk, the file ends in .vdi and if you use dynamic allocation, will be much smaller than the total size allocated in the setup until you actually fill the virtual drive with content.
Is there a full-fledged directory tree of the guest OS stored somewhere on the host OS? No.
On a related note, where is the guest OS itself stored? On the virtual hard drive.
One way to determine where your virtual disk is being stored:
