vdfuse

Additional Notes

vdfuse (VirtualBox Disk FUSE) mounts VirtualBox VDI (Virtual Disk Image) files as a filesystem accessible via FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace). It allows accessing the partition table and individual partitions inside a VDI file without running a virtual machine.

When mounted, the VDI file is exposed as a directory containing raw disk image files representing the entire virtual disk and each partition. These raw files can then be mounted with mount -o loop or accessed directly with filesystem tools like fsck and dd. This is useful for recovering data from virtual machines, modifying disk images offline, or migrating data.

Syntax

vdfuse [options] -f image.vdi <mountpoint>

Parameters

• image.vdi: The VirtualBox VDI disk image file.
• mountpoint: Directory where the VDI contents will be exposed.

Common Options

• -f file: Specify the VDI file to mount.
• -r: Mount the image read-only.
• -t type: Specify image type (vdi, vmdk, vhd, raw).
• -a: Allow all users to access the mount point.
• -p: Use a specific partition number.
• -w: Allow write access (use with caution).

Examples

vdfuse -f /path/to/disk.vdi /mnt/vdi

Mount a VDI file. The directory will contain files like EntireDisk, Partition1, Partition2, etc.

mount -o loop /mnt/vdi/Partition1 /mnt/partition1

Mount the first partition from the VDI as a loop device.

vdfuse -r -f disk.vdi /mnt/vdi

Mount a VDI read-only for safe data recovery.

umount /mnt/vdi
fusermount -u /mnt/vdi

Unmount the VDI mount point.

Practical Notes

• vdfuse is not part of VirtualBox itself; it is a separate FUSE tool (often packaged as virtualbox-fuse or vdfuse).
• For accessing VDI files, qemu-nbd and libvirt provide alternative approaches.
• Always mount critical data read-only first to avoid accidental writes.
• The EntireDisk file contains the full raw disk image including partition table.
• Write support (-w) can corrupt the VDI if not handled carefully.