Virtualbox : Copying & Converting Drive Images

VBoxManage is a command line tool that allows you to perform administrative functions on VirtualBox installations.

To create a copy of a drive, the command is -

 VBoxManage clonehd sourcefile targetfile . e.g Vboxmanage winxp.vdi winxpcopy.vdi

To change the format of the target, add the format parameter -

VBoxManage clonehd sourcefile targetfile --format VDI e.g.

VBoxManage clonehd c:\!RD\Virtualbox\w2003.vmdk w2003.vdi --format VDI

0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

Clone hard disk created in format 'VDI'. UUID: 6a1ded22-edb4-4cef-b74a-871db2fcafd6

If you want to increase the logical size of an expanding volume, the following post shows how to use VBoxManage to create a larger drive.