| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="intro-save-machine-state">
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| 4 | <title>Saving the State of the Machine</title>
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| 5 | <body>
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| 6 | <p>When you click the <b outputclass="bold">Close</b> button of your virtual machine window, at the top right of the
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| 7 | window, just like you would close any other window on your system, <ph
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| 8 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> asks you whether you want to save or power off the VM. As a
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| 9 | shortcut, you can also press <b outputclass="bold">Host key + Q</b>. </p>
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| 10 | <p>
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| 11 | The difference between the three options is crucial. They mean
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| 12 | the following:
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| 13 | </p>
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| 14 | <ul>
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| 15 | <li>
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| 16 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Save the machine state:</b>
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| 17 | With this option, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 18 | <i>freezes</i> the virtual machine by
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| 19 | completely saving its state to your local disk.
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| 20 | </p>
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| 21 | <p>When you start the VM again later, you will find that the VM continues exactly where it was left off. All
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| 22 | your programs will still be open, and your computer resumes operation. Saving the state of a virtual machine
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| 23 | is thus in some ways similar to suspending a laptop computer by closing its lid. </p>
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| 24 | </li>
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| 25 | <li>
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| 26 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Send the shutdown signal.</b>
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| 27 | This will send an ACPI shutdown signal to the virtual
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| 28 | machine, which has the same effect as if you had pressed the
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| 29 | power button on a real computer. This should trigger a
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| 30 | proper shutdown mechanism from within the VM.
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| 31 | </p>
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| 32 | </li>
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| 33 | <li>
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| 34 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Power off the machine:</b> With
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| 35 | this option, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> also stops running the virtual
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| 36 | machine, but <i>without</i> saving its state.
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| 37 | </p>
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| 38 | <note type="caution">
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| 39 | <p>This is equivalent to pulling the power plug on a real computer without shutting it down properly. If you
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| 40 | start the machine again after powering it off, your OS will have to reboot completely and may begin a
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| 41 | lengthy check of its virtual system disks. As a result, this should not normally be done, since it can
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| 42 | potentially cause data loss or an inconsistent state of the guest system on disk. </p>
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| 43 | </note>
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| 44 | <p>As an exception, if your virtual machine has any snapshots, see <xref href="snapshots.dita#snapshots"/>, you
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| 45 | can use this option to quickly <b outputclass="bold">restore the current snapshot</b> of the virtual machine.
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| 46 | In that case, powering off the machine will discard the current state and any changes made since the previous
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| 47 | snapshot was taken will be lost. </p>
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| 48 | </li>
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| 49 | </ul>
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| 50 | <p>The <b outputclass="bold">Discard</b> button in the <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/> window
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| 51 | discards a virtual machine's saved state. This has the same effect as powering it off, and the same warnings
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| 52 | apply. </p>
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| 53 | </body>
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| 54 |
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| 55 | </topic>
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