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Comment by greyboy | Hacker News Reader

I never do the export/import process for that exact reason.

If I need to move a VM for some reason, I copy the entire VM directory to the new location then open VirtualBox and use "Machine" -> "Add ..." and select the directory with the VM config and files.

I hope that helps, unless I missed something.

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It would be nice to have the whole thing on an external SSD, which I could switch between my desktop and laptop.

Does this work or could the VMs get corrupted?

I have had no issues running a VM on an external drive.

Even if you ran it on one machine with a Linux host and on another with a Windows host?

I've not moved VM's between Windows and Linux, but it works fine going back and forth between OS X and Windows. The only caveat being that you have to re-visit the VM's settings for things like host volume mapping and especially networking config.

Seems like the .vdi files are configured relative, so at least this should go automatically.

Host volume mapping is a folder shared between the host and the VM?

> Host volume mapping is a folder shared between the host and the VM?

Yes.

Bought a 128GB USB 3.0 stick. Works like a charm.

Hosts:

Notebook runs Linux Mint 17 with VirtualBox 5.0

Desktop runs Windows 7 with VirtualBox 4.3 (5.0 ha an issue on Win7 that Oracle won't fix, but prevent my VM from starting)

Guest:

Xubuntu 15.04 with the VirtualBox 5.0 Guest Additions

thanks (also to bane for providing the link which essentially states the same), will try that next time

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