I--- Windows Xp Qcow2 May 2026

Windows XP

Running using the QCOW2 (QEMU Copy-On-Write) disk format is a popular way to preserve legacy software or games in a virtual environment like QEMU or KVM. QCOW2 is favored because it only uses physical storage for the space actually written to by the VM, making your "20GB" virtual disk take up very little space on your host machine initially. 1. Creating the QCOW2 Disk Image

Save 90% of disk space by creating a base XP image and cloning it: i--- Windows Xp Qcow2

Installing VirtIO Drivers Post-Setup

Or enable discard=unmap in QEMU + use a tool like sdelete -z inside XP, then qemu-img map to see the zeroes. Windows XP Running using the QCOW2 (QEMU Copy-On-Write)