Opening QCOW2 Files

The QCOW2 file type is primarily associated with QEMU.

QCOW2	File extension: QCOW2
	File type:	virtual hard disk image

What is a QCOW2 file?

QCOW2 files mostly belong to QEMU by QEMU Team. A QCOW2 file is a virtual hard disk image saved in QEMU Copy on Write 2 (an updated version of QCOW) format. When creating a new virtual machine QEMU system emulation/virtualization software, the user has to setup a virtual hard disk (QCOW2 file) used to store the operating system and user data for that machine. QEMU dynamically allocates physical storage space to a QCOW2 file. So, if the size of the virtual disk is set to 20GB during setup, QEMU delays allocation of the entire 20GB until it is actually needed by the virtual disk.

How to open a QCOW2 file

You need a suitable software like QEMU from QEMU Team to open a QCOW2 file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your QCOW2 file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a QCOW2 file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online QCOW2 File Viewer

Choose your .qcow2 file to view

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

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How to extract texts from QCOW2 files or capture a screenshot to PDF, JPG, DOCX, TXT, ...

1. To do this, click the button "Choose your .qcow2 file to view" on this page.
2. After your file is opened in browser,
3. click "Save as..." in the menu.
4. Then choose the file format (e.g. JPG, PDF, DOCX, TXT, ...) you want.
5. Your file will be converted and downloaded.

QCOW2 file format:

Every file has a defined file format, i.e. how the data is arranged in the file. Often, the file format can be deduced from the file extension or the initial bytes (called the signature). However, different programs can use the same file extension, and file extensions can be assigned incorrectly. So a detailed analysis of a file is vital in order to determine the format and the associated program. Below is our analysis of the QCOW2 files:

QCOW2 is a very widely used file extension. The file type is primarily used by a single program. The two most popular formats are as follows:

• 96% of all QCOW2 files belong to QCOW2 disk image. If you open these files in a text editor, you will see only illegible characters. A typical file size is 1 GB. This file type is based on cutting-edge technology. Certain words are almost always found in the files, such as corrupt bit and dirty bit. Such files are related to windows, disk, xbox, virtioa, machine, qemu, hassos, userdata, centos and rhel.
• 1% of all QCOW2 files start with the bytes KDMV crucial for this file format. These files contain neither text nor words, but only data. The average file size is 120 MB with most files being between 780 KB and 120 MB in size. Several words can almost always be found in the files, e.g. KDMV. The file name virtioa.qcow2 is typical for these files.

The remaining 3% of all QCOW2 files are different files with different signatures. Sometimes used for adventerprisek, vios, cloud, universalk, debian, server or empty. If you want to find out which format your QCOW2 file belongs to, just click on the button "Choose your .qcow2 file to view".