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="settings-storage">
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4 | <title>Storage Settings</title>
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5 |
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6 | <body>
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7 | <p>
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8 | The <b outputclass="bold">Storage</b> category in the VM
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9 | settings enables you to connect virtual hard disk, CD/DVD, and
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10 | floppy images and drives to your virtual machine.
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11 | </p>
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12 | <p>
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13 | In a real computer, so-called <i>storage
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14 | controllers</i> connect physical disk drives to the rest of
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15 | the computer. Similarly, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> presents virtual storage
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16 | controllers to a virtual machine. Under each controller, the
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17 | virtual devices, such as hard disks, CD/DVD or floppy drives,
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18 | attached to the controller are shown.
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19 | </p>
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20 | <note>
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21 | <p>
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22 | This section gives a quick introduction to the <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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23 | storage settings. See <xref href="storage.dita#storage"/> for a full
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24 | description of the available storage settings in <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>.
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25 | </p>
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26 | </note>
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27 | <p>
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28 | If you have used the <b outputclass="bold">Create Virtual
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29 | Machine</b> wizard to create a machine, you will normally
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30 | see something like the following:
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31 | </p>
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32 | <fig id="fig-storage-settings">
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33 | <title>Storage Settings for a Virtual Machine</title>
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34 | <xref href="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png" format="png" platform="htmlhelp">
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35 | <image href="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png" width="10cm" placement="break">
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36 | <alt>Storage Settings for a Virtual Machine</alt>
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37 | </image>
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38 | </xref>
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39 | <image platform="ohc" href="images/vm-settings-harddisk.png" width="10cm" placement="break">
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40 | <alt>Storage Settings for a Virtual Machine</alt>
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41 | </image>
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42 | </fig>
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43 | <p>
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44 | Depending on the guest OS type that you selected when you created
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45 | the VM, a new VM includes the following storage devices:
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46 | </p>
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47 | <ul>
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48 | <li>
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49 | <p><b outputclass="bold">IDE controller.</b> A virtual
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50 | CD/DVD drive is attached to device 0 on the secondary channel
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51 | of the IDE controller.
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52 | </p>
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53 | </li>
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54 | <li>
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55 | <p><b outputclass="bold">SATA controller.</b> This is a
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56 | modern type of storage controller for higher hard disk data
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57 | throughput, to which the virtual hard disks are attached.
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58 | Initially you will normally have one such virtual disk, but as
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59 | shown in the previous screenshot, you can have more than one.
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60 | Each is represented by a disk image file, such as a VDI file
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61 | in this example.
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62 | </p>
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63 | </li>
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64 | </ul>
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65 | <p>
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66 | If you created your VM with an older version of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>,
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67 | the default storage layout may differ. You might then only have an
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68 | IDE controller to which both the CD/DVD drive and the hard disks
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69 | have been attached. This might also apply if you selected an older
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70 | OS type when you created the VM. Since older OSes do not support
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71 | SATA without additional drivers, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> will make sure
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72 | that no such devices are present initially. See
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73 | <xref href="harddiskcontrollers.dita#harddiskcontrollers"/>.
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74 | </p>
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75 | <p>
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76 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> also provides a <i>floppy
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77 | controller</i>. You cannot add devices other than floppy
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78 | drives to this controller. Virtual floppy drives, like virtual
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79 | CD/DVD drives, can be connected to either a host floppy drive, if
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80 | you have one, or a disk image, which in this case must be in RAW
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81 | format.
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82 | </p>
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83 | <p>
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84 | You can modify these media attachments freely. For example, if you
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85 | wish to copy some files from another virtual disk that you
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86 | created, you can connect that disk as a second hard disk, as in
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87 | the above screenshot. You could also add a second virtual CD/DVD
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88 | drive, or change where these items are attached. The following
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89 | options are available:
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90 | </p>
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91 | <ul>
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92 | <li>
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93 | <p>
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94 | To <b outputclass="bold">add another virtual hard disk, or a
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95 | CD/DVD or floppy drive</b>, select the storage
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96 | controller to which it should be added (such as IDE, SATA,
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97 | SCSI, SAS, floppy controller) and then click the
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98 | <b outputclass="bold">Add Disk</b> button below the
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99 | tree. You can then either select <b outputclass="bold">Optical
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100 | Drive</b> or <b outputclass="bold">Hard
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101 | Disk</b>. If you clicked on a floppy controller, you
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102 | can add a floppy drive instead. Alternatively, right-click on
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103 | the storage controller and select a menu item there.
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104 | </p>
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105 | <p>
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106 | A dialog is displayed, enabling you to select an existing disk
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107 | image file or to create a new disk image file. Depending on
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108 | the type of disk image, the dialog is called
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109 | <b outputclass="bold">Hard Disk Selector</b>,
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110 | <b outputclass="bold">Optical Disk Selector</b>, or
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111 | <b outputclass="bold">Floppy Disk Selector</b>.
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112 | </p>
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113 | <p>
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114 | See <xref href="vdidetails.dita#vdidetails"/> for information on the image
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115 | file types that are supported by <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>.
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116 | </p>
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117 | <p>
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118 | For virtual CD/DVD drives, the image files will typically be
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119 | in the standard ISO format instead. Most commonly, you will
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120 | select this option when installing an OS from an ISO file that
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121 | you have obtained from the Internet. For example, most Linux
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122 | distributions are available in this way.
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123 | </p>
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124 | <p>
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125 | Depending on the type of disk image, you can set the following
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126 | <b outputclass="bold">Attributes</b> for the disk image
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127 | in the right part of the Storage settings page:
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128 | </p>
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129 | <ul>
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130 | <li>
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131 | <p>
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132 | The <b outputclass="bold">device slot</b> of the
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133 | controller that the virtual disk is connected to. IDE
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134 | controllers have four slots: primary device 0, primary
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135 | device 1, secondary device 0, and secondary device 1. By
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136 | contrast, SATA and SCSI controllers offer you up to 30
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137 | slots for attaching virtual devices.
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138 | </p>
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139 | </li>
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140 | <li>
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141 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Solid-state Drive</b>
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142 | presents a virtual disk to the guest as a solid-state
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143 | device.
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144 | </p>
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145 | </li>
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146 | <li>
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147 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Hot-pluggable</b> presents a
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148 | virtual disk to the guest as a hot-pluggable device.
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149 | </p>
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150 | </li>
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151 | <li>
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152 | <p>
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153 | For virtual CD/DVD drives, you can select
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154 | <b outputclass="bold">Live CD/DVD</b>. This means
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155 | that the virtual optical disk is not removed from when the
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156 | guest system ejects it.
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157 | </p>
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158 | </li>
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159 | </ul>
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160 | </li>
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161 | <li>
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162 | <p>
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163 | To <b outputclass="bold">remove an attachment</b>,
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164 | either select it and click on the
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165 | <b outputclass="bold">Remove</b> icon at the bottom, or
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166 | right-click on it and select the menu item.
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167 | </p>
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168 | </li>
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169 | </ul>
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170 | <p>
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171 | Removable media, such as CD/DVDs and floppies, can be changed
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172 | while the guest is running. Since the
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173 | <b outputclass="bold">Settings</b> window is not available
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174 | at that time, you can also access these settings from the
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175 | <b outputclass="bold">Devices</b> menu of your virtual
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176 | machine window.
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177 | </p>
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178 | </body>
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179 |
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180 | </topic>
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