Snapshots and clones

Snapshots

A snapshot saves a machine as it is, so you can come back to that moment later. Good ones to keep: “fresh install” right after Windows and the guest tools, and “before Diablo II” before you try something risky.

Open the machine’s Snapshots window and click Take snapshot. Give it a name.

• Machine turned off: the snapshot saves the disk.
• Machine running: it also saves the memory and the processor, so restoring it brings back the running machine, programs and all. The VM state column shows how much it saved.

Restore puts the machine back to a snapshot. Whatever changed since is lost, so take a new snapshot first if you want to keep it. Delete removes a snapshot for good.

Snapshots form a tree. A snapshot taken after a restore sits under the one you restored, and the current one is marked current.

Tip

On Windows 98 a snapshot is the fastest fix for almost anything. A driver that broke the desktop, a game that wrecked the registry, a ScanDisk after a crash: restore “fresh install” and you’re back in seconds.

Clones

Clone makes a new machine with the same settings. Type a name for the copy and click Clone.

By default the copy gets its own copy of the disk, snapshots included. That takes as long as copying the file, and as much space.

Use the same hard disk instead of copying it makes a second machine on the same disk, for example to try other settings. Only one of them may run at a time. Two running at once will corrupt the disk.

Shut a machine down before you clone it. A copy of a disk that is being written wouldn’t boot.

On Windows 11, Give the copy a new TPM makes the copy a different PC as far as Windows is concerned. If the original uses BitLocker, the copy will ask for its recovery key.