# VirtualBox losing harddrive with FreeBSD guest 7/8



## eyebone (Apr 22, 2010)

hi folks,

i don't know if i already reported it as at least i have this problem since several weeks. it seems to me impossible to run a freebsd 7/8 guest system on a freebsd 8 host.
installation works usually fine. after boot i check out ports and updates with portsnap and freebsd-update at this point, if some hdd activity is necessary the device is lost in the guest os and i have to reboot the guest. afterwards i usually get a /bin/sh prompt presented and lost inodes. sadly this is pretty much reproduceable. possibly one of you came accross this fault and has a good advice at hand.

i want to add that this problem is not occuring onto a windows machine , i don't know about linux so far.

regards,


*FIX*
ok it is more a workaround as a fix, but it is working. 
remove the virtual IDE Controller where the virtual drive is per default connected, add a scsi controller and verify that the vdi is connected to the scsi device. onto boot you will recognize that freebsd is not finding the old harddrive as it was ad1 and is now da1, in this case just mount root via:
ufs:/dev/da1s1a and change the entries in /etc/fstab to the new drive name. thats it, no detaching drive on stress hdd activity anymore.


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## eyebone (May 14, 2010)

better order
============

```
1. go to storage
2. remove ide hdd or disable it
3. add scsi device
4. hang in the vdi image at the scsi device
5. boot the machine
```
now, the system is booting usually freebsd can not find the root filesystem as the device character has changed, and you are commended to tell it where to find / the scsi drive is usually identified as "da" in my case i had to tell freebsd:


```
ufs:/dev/da1s1a
```

afterwards the entry in /etc/fstab has to be adjusted to the new device name. thats it 

regards


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