Mr N

VirtualBox allows you to take snapshots and restore them. It works some of the time and to be fair this has got a lot better in recent versions. The process for restoring a snapshot is unusually awkward to the point that I’m blogging it so it must be difficult to remember - either that or all those years of excessive fun at university are finally coming back to steal my sanity.

1. Load VirtualBox application.
2. Look at the Snapshots(n) tab on the right hand side.
3. Highlight the snap shot you want.
4. Click the “Restore Snapshot” icon and click “Restore” to confirm.
5. A progress bar of “Restoring execution state” will appear then disappear.
6. The writing on the left hand side under the machine operating system icon will switch to “Saved". On the right hand side the snapshot name will go bold and the “Current State” will move to just under the snapshot you had previously highlighted.
7. Strangely the snapshot doesn’t appear, now you have to click “Start".
8. A progress bar of “Restoring virtual machine…” will appear then disappear.

If you are lucky this will work and you will see the snapshot reformed in the state you left it. If you are unlucky there will be a brief flash of what should have been and the virtual machine will reset.

When you have finished don’t bother shutting the machine down just click the “X” to close the Virtual machine and select “Power off machine".