Windows Xp Qcow2 |work| Jun 2026

qemu-img convert -O qcow2 ~/vms/winxp.qcow2 ~/vms/winxp-compacted.qcow2

Microsoft no longer provides official XP downloads, but if you have a legitimate license key and installation CD/ISO:

.qcow2 images can be compressed to save disk space. windows xp qcow2

During the initial blue Windows XP setup screen, press repeatedly to load third-party SCSI/RAID drivers. Select the VirtIO Block Driver for Windows XP . Step 3: Launching the Installation via QEMU Command Line

Have questions about migrating your specific XP hardware to a QCOW2 image? Consult the QEMU documentation or the #qemu IRC channel on Libera.chat. qemu-img convert -O qcow2 ~/vms/winxp

This creates a QCOW2 image named winxp.qcow2 , which will appear as a 20GB drive to the guest operating system. The -f qcow2 flag specifies the format.

qemu-img convert -O qcow2 windows-xp.qcow2 windows-xp-compacted.qcow2 mv windows-xp-compacted.qcow2 windows-xp.qcow2 Step 3: Launching the Installation via QEMU Command

The file occupies only the space actually used by Windows XP, saving host storage.

-drive file=windows-xp.qcow2,format=qcow2,cache=writeback

By default, Windows XP installation uses generic IDE drivers. This results in on modern hardware. To get decent speed, you need VirtIO drivers.