Forum Discussion
How do I backup my full virtual machine?
It was 3 AM, coffee cup empty, and I was putting the final touches on a project due tomorrow. Suddenly, a pop-up from VirtuallBox virtual machine file corrupted, unable to boot! Two weeks of hard wo...
I highly recommend using VirtuallBox's built-in export function for virtual machine backup. It's the simplest full backup method I've found recently. Just open the app, select the virtual machine, click on the "File" menu, choose "Export Appliance", and then select the save format and path. The whole process requires no additional software and is very fast and convenient. Here are the detailed steps:
- Open VirtuallBox and select your virtual machine.
- Click "File" → "Export Virtual Appliance" and choose OVA or OVF format。
- Save the exported file to an external hard drive or cloud storage (e.g., Google Drive).
The best part is that it's completely free to backup full virtual machine, and the exported file can be directly imported into other VirtuallBox instances. I export a backup every Friday before leaving work to ensure a stress-free weekend!