So I installed VirtualBox a few days ago and loved it so much I wanted to put it on my Macbook (and since it's FREE, you can do it without licensing issues unlike some other pieces of software..... f$#@ you Macworld). However, I have no desire to reinstall/reconfigure Windows. Therefore I decided to just transfer VirtualBox' configuration from one Mac to another as closely as possible. This method takes about 1 minute (plus however long it takes to transfer your hard drive image).
I tried transferring the "~/Library/VirtualBox" folder over directly, and that didn't work (seems to be hardware-specific), so I tried creating a new machine and importing the hard drive image, that works fine. By the way, if you have Windows installed on this image, the following is probably illegal (unless you're licensed properly):
1) Go into ~/Library/VirtualBox/ on the computer with the existing installation 2) Transfer the "HardDisks" folder to the new mac in the same relative location (~/Library/VirtualBox), leaving out everything else in the VirtualBox folder 3) [this step could have been done already, doesn't matter] Install VirtualBox on the destination machine 4) Create a new virtual machine 5) Go through the dialogs selecting RAM allocation, et al, (it doesn't matter what you select as far as RAM or even machine name) and when it comes to "Virtual Hard Disk," Select "Use existing hard disk" 5) Select the .vdi file you transfered from your previous mac (~/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/*****.vdi) by hitting the little FOLDER BUTTON (it will NOT show up under that drop-down menu automatically).
Other websites were talking about using some sort of "clone machine" command, but this seems to work fine (and yes, you can just duplicate the "vdi" to clone a virtual machine on the same computer). The other machine related files do not seem to be transferable, so transferring snapshots and other settings would seem impossible (at least via this method). (31,409)
VirtualBox is an open source x86 virtualization program. To put it simply what that is:
I've been running into more and more reasons to boot into Windows lately, so today I decided to stop rebooting all the time and get a virtual machine program. I've been burned before when I purchased Parallels, so I decided to find a cheaper and better way.
Parallels charges for every version, and each version EXPIRES when used with a newer version of OS X. The upgrade costs nearly as much as the program itself, so it's quite the motherfucker.
So I googled, found VirtualBox, started downloading the 70mb file, and decided to read a review to see if those precious few seconds of waiting were worth my time (the internet has left me with crippling A.D.D.). After reading the Macworld review, I nearly stopped downloading the file, which says a lot, because in chrome, that button is ALL THE WAYYYY DOWN TTHEEERRREEE. Fortunately, my laziness won out and since VirtualBox is FREE, I decided to give it a few minutes of my time before dropping another benjamin just to run Internet Explorer.
After starting VirtualBox up and getting it up and running with a few clicks and in under 45 minutes (44 minutes waiting for Windows to install/configure), I've decided to make a few humble corrections to the Macworld review:
An while we're at it, let's alter a another of their fuck-tarded reviews:
I tried transferring the "~/Library/VirtualBox" folder over directly, and that didn't work (seems to be hardware-specific), so I tried creating a new machine and importing the hard drive image, that works fine. By the way, if you have Windows installed on this image, the following is probably illegal (unless you're licensed properly):
(it will NOT show up under that drop-down menu automatically).
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