How do I change the UUID of a virtual disk

Question

I am trying to create a new virtual machine with Oracle VirtualBox  using an already-existing hard disk  When I try to select the existing hard disk file  a  vhd file  it displays an error saying the virtual hard disk cannot be used because the UUID already exists   So I tried the following command to change its UUID   VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid  home user VirtualBox VMs drupal drupal vhd   I get this error      Syntax error  Invalid UUID parameter   How can I resolve this

User · Answer

The command fails because it has space in one of the folder name, i.e. 'VirtualBox VMs.

VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid /home/user/VirtualBox VMs/drupal/drupal.vhd

If there is no space at folder name or file name, then the command will work even without quoting it, e.g. after changing 'VirtualBox VMs' into 'VBoxVMs'

VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid /home/user/VBoxVMs/drupal/drupal.vhd

User · Answer

The correct command is the following one   VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid   home user VirtualBox VMs drupal drupal vhd    The path for the virtual disk contains a space  so it must be enclosed in double quotes to avoid it is parsed as two parameters

User · Answer

The following worked for me    run VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid  VDI VMDK file  twice  the first time is just to conveniently generate an UUID  you could use any other UUID generation method instead  open the  vbox file in a text editor replace the UUID found in Machine uuid         with the UUID you got when you ran sethduuid the first time replace the UUID found in HardDisk uuid         and in Image uuid       towards the end  with the UUID you got when you ran sethduuid the second time

User · Answer

Same solution as  Al3x for Windows x64  in cmd exe   cd  programfiles  Oracle VirtualBox  VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid  full path to  vdi    This randomizes the UUID of the disk  Pro tip  Right click the  vdi file while holding shift and select  Copy as path  to obtain  full path to  vdi  and enable quick edit in cmd exe  then right click to paste

User · Answer

If you ve copied a disk  vmdk file  from one machine to another and need to change a disk s UUID in the copy  you don t need to change the Machine UUID as has been suggested by another answer    All you need to do is to assign a new UUID to the disk image   VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid your-box-disk2 vmdk UUID changed to  5d34479f-5597-4b78-a1fa-94e200d16bbb   and then replace the old UUID with the newly generated one in two places in your   vbox file   lt MediaRegistry gt     lt HardDisks gt       lt HardDisk uuid   5d34479f-5597-4b78-a1fa-94e200d16bbb   location  box-disk2 vmdk  format  VMDK  type  Normal   gt     lt  HardDisks gt    and  in        lt AttachedDevice type  HardDisk  hotpluggable  false  port  0  device  0  gt         lt Image uuid   5d34479f-5597-4b78-a1fa-94e200d16bbb    gt       lt  AttachedDevice gt    It worked for me for VirtualBox ver  5 1 8 running on Mac OS X El Capitan

User · Answer

Though you have solved the problem  I just post the reason here for some others with the similar problem   The reason is there s an space in your path directory name VirtualBox VMs  which will separate the command  So the error appears

User · Answer

I have searched the web for an answer regarding MAC OS  so    the solution is  cd  Applications VirtualBox app Contents Resources VirtualBoxVM app Contents MacOS   VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid  full path to vdi

User · Answer

Even though this question asked is old  note that changing a UUID on a virtual HDD in a windows system will make windows treat it as a not activated machine  as it notices the disk change  and will ask for reactivation

User · Answer

Another alternative to your original solution would be to use the escape character   before the space   VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid  home user VirtualBox  VMs drupal drupal vhd

[virtual-machine] How do I change the UUID of a virtual disk?

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