LanguageQCOW
QEMU Copy-On-Write data
File type: Virtual machine, virtualization software related file
A qcow file extension is related to the QEMU Copy-On-Write file format used to store disk images.
What is qcow file?
File type category:
Virtual machine, virtualization software related file
Date updated: June 11, 2019
The qcow image format is one of the disk image formats supported by the QEMU processor emulator. It is a representation of a fixed size block device in a file. Benefits it offers over using raw dump representation include:
- Smaller file size, even on filesystems which don't support holes (i.e. sparse files)
- Copy-on-write support, where the image only represents changes made to an underlying disk image
- Snapshot support, where the image can contain multiple snapshots of the images history
- Optional zlib based compression
- Optional AES encryption
How to open qcow file?
Use QEMU to open *.qcow files.
How to convert qcow file?
Probably cannot be converted to anything else.
Suggested software to open qcow file:
Associated software actions with the qcow file
Software applications that can open qcow files:
Qemu Manager (Microsoft Windows)
QEMU (Linux/Unix)
Software apps that create qcow files:
Qemu Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Software applications that handle other tasks involving qcow files:
Qemu Manager (Microsoft Windows)
QEMU (Linux/Unix)