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I have a backup of a vdi file on an external 2TB hard disk with plenty of space. It's 25GB heavy. I was able to copy TO it obviously.

Now I am trying to copy it back to a new laptop I got for work, and whatever I try, it always fails to copy.

For example, with rsync, it gets right to the end of it, but then outputs an input/output error and there's no file :(

rsync -avvz --progress arch.vdi /home/me/vboxvms/arch/arch.vdi sending incremental file list delta-transmission disabled for local transfer or --whole-file arch.vdi 25,527,582,720 100% 12.61MB/s 0:32:11 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1) rsync: read errors mapping "/media/me/Ext/bak/arch/arch.vdi": Input/output error (5) WARNING: arch.vdi failed verification -- update discarded (will try again). arch.vdi 5,006,721,024 19% 15.94MB/s 0:20:57

This is a run I tried from the actual directory on the external disk. I also tried with params rsync -avvz -W --ignore-errors but also failed. I have tried with plain cp and with GUIs etc - nothing works. Also tried dd but that copied only 6GB (I assume because it's from NTFS to ext4).

I have searched extensively and apparently many people have faced this issue but I haven't been able to find any solution...

The file is good, I tried to start the virtualbox instance by loading the file directly from the external disk and it works (but I want it on the local disk...).

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    If it works through VB, then use VB to copy it through to the new system. Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 18:51
  • I was very optimistic when I read your comment, so I tried, but :( : Could not create the clone medium '/home/me/vboxvms/arch/arch.vdi' (VERR_DEV_IO_ERROR). Result Code: VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004) Component: MediumWrap Interface: IMedium {ad47ad09-787b-44ab-b343-a082a3f2dfb1} Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 19:01
  • Very funny but disappointing: there seems to be some issue with the file itself. I tried to copy it from within virtualbox to the external disk itself (just create a copy) and it failed too. I booted that image again and it still loads fine....very strange...could it be because it's a "Dynamically allocated storage"? Virtual Size and Actual Size differ. Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 19:16
  • I can even mount the vdi file onto my linux box by following this article: cyrill-gremaud.ch/mount-virtualbox-image-drive-on-ubuntu-vdi. But every and any attempt at copying, converting to raw, whatever, fails.... I am probably going to create a new instance on my new laptop, mount that vdi, and just try to save the most important files and copy them over like that.... Commented Aug 6, 2021 at 20:51
  • That's how I "solved" it: mounted the vdi image as a drive per the above article, saved whatever I needed out of that mount, and created a new virtualbox instance and copied it manually in there.... Commented Aug 9, 2021 at 13:46

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