What is a .QCOW2 file?
QCOW2 is the copy-on-write virtual disk used by QEMU and KVM. Created by QEMU.
- Did you know
- QCOW2 is QEMU’s disk format, storing space only as it is used and supporting snapshots.
- QCOW2 supports two compression schemes for stored data - zlib (deflate) and the newer Zstandard - though compressed clusters are read-only.
- A QCOW2 image can layer changes on top of a read-only backing file, recording only the differences so the base image is never modified.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify disk and virtual-machine images: ISO, VHD/VHDX (Hyper-V), VMDK (VMware), QCOW2 (QEMU), and VDI (VirtualBox). For raw IMG images it decodes the partition table (MBR/GPT) and the first volume's filesystem - FAT16/32, NTFS, exFAT - with label, cluster size, and volume size.
- Depth of analysis
- .QCOW2 is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .QCOW2 file
- Drag a .QCOW2 file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.