[GRLUG] VirtualBox backups v snapshots

[Grand Rapids Linux Users Group]

I'm trying to get clear about snapshots v. backups for a Windows 10 VB 
VM on my Ubuntu 20.04 box.

I see confusing things online. Some people say forget about snapshots 
and just back up the VM directory. And it does seem tricky to keep a 
current snapshot without a clutter of older, apparently incremental 
snapshots.

But when I look at my VirtualBox VMs directory it's not clear how I 
would restore my current VM from a backup of that folder.

The snapshot sub-directory shows a {}.vdi file with a current date and 
time, even though I haven't created a new snapshot since 2023-02-27.

In addition, the VirtualBox VMs directory includes four log files (two 
from yesterday and two from today) plus these files:
     Windows 10 VM.nvram       Aug 14, 2023-02-27     541kB Binary
     Windows 10 VM.vbox         Oct 3, 2023-02-27    11.9kB Unknown
     Windows 10 VM.vbox-prev    Oct 2, 2023-02-27    11.9kB Markup
     Windows 10 VM.vdi          Feb 27, 2023-02-27    33.7GB Unknown

To me this says that if I tried to restore from that folder (say after a 
disk crash), I would get the Feb 27 version and none of the updates, 
added programs, and files created since then.

Where would that recent stuff be if I was restoring from a backup? 
Surely not in the 11KB folder.

So do I need current snapshots after all?

-- 
Eric Beversluis www.ericbeversluis.com