How do I go back to a snapshot in VirtualBox?

I've made three snapshots on VirtualBox virtual machine (winxp).

I want to go back to Snapshot 2.

• If I click on "Snapshot 2" and click Start, it goes back to the current state.
• I can click on "Current State" and "revert to current snapshot" (unclear: what is the "current snapshot", since I have 3 snapshots), but after it is finished, I can't discern what it did exactly and when I click start, it returns to the current state.

How do I go back to Snapshot 2?

Solution 1:

Simply click on the snapshot you want to go back to, then click the "Restore" icon:

Note that your current state will be discarded when you restore a snapshot.

All further snapshots from the restored one will be conserved and you will simply start a new branch of snapshots starting from the restored one.

Solution 2:

I know I'm a little late to answer this question, but maybe you'll still find these thoughts helpful. As of today (4/30/10), the current version of Virtualbox allows you to revert to any snapshot WITHOUT having to delete child snapshots. For instance, grrussell suggested that you have to delete snapshot 3 in order to return to snapshot 2. I don't know if this was the case in earlier versions of Virtualbox, but the most current version does not require this. You can revert to snapshot 2 and make changes, and then either save a new snapshot (which would be a sibling of snapshot 3) or discard your changes and revert to snapshot 3 (or the "base" snapshot, if you so desire). Hope that helps!

Solution 3:

The first answer is incorrect. You can restore ANY snapshot, but it will replace your CURRENT STATE with the new snapshot.

In the example above, if you restore Snapshot 2, it will now become your current snapshot so you've essentially created a branch of Snapshot 2 and Snapshot 3 is a different branch of Snapshot of 2 which is now frozen in time unless you restore Snapshot 3 at some point in the future.