Fix VirtualBox “UUID already exists” Errors

When I migrated my virtual hard drives from one physical disk to another, I ran into a permissions error.

The error looks like this:

 

“Failed to open the hard disk G:\VirtualBox VMs\Windows 8 \Windows 8 Enterprise2.vdi.
Cannot register the hard disk ‘G:\VirtualBox VMs\Windows 8 \Windows 8 Enterprise2.vdi’ {ca2bdc6a-a487-4e57-9fcd-509d0c31d86d} because a hard disk ‘G:\VirtualBox VMs\Windows 8 Enterprise\Windows 8 Enterprise2.vdi’ with UUID {ca2bdc6a-a487-4e57-9fcd-509d0c31d86d} already exists.
Result Code:
E_INVALIDARG (0x80070057)
Component:
VirtualBox
Interface:
IVirtualBox {3b2f08eb-b810-4715-bee0-bb06b9880ad2}
Callee RC:
VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80BB0001)”

o fix this, you’ll need to run some text commands. Open up the Command Prompt. In both Windows 8 and Windows 7, it can be found by typing “cmd” into the Start Menu search box.

 

Now change the cmd prompt’s directory to the folder you installed VirtualBox in. If you put it in the default the command is this:

cd C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\

 

Now type in the following command (or copy/paste using right click):

VBOXMANAGE.EXE internalcommands sethduuid “path and vdifile”

 

you should see a message saying “UUID change to: …” and then the VirtualBox should work. All fixed!