Extract text from Drive Image backups (PQI)
To convert PQI backups to another format, you need Norton Ghost or other Disk Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "System Backup Archive" file type, you need software like Norton Ghost or a similar tool.
A .PQI file is primarily a proprietary disk image created by PowerQuest Drive Image, a legacy system backup utility later acquired by Symantec. These files store exact, sector-by-sector block copies of hard drives, historically used for disaster recovery and operating system cloning. Less commonly, the .PQI extension is used for plain-text input scripts in the USGS PHREEQC geochemical modeling software, or as backup data for Siemens ProTool PLCs.
The main disadvantage of the PowerQuest .PQI format is its extreme obsolescence and proprietary lock-in. Because it is a closed archive format designed for early 2000s hardware, opening it on modern operating systems is incredibly difficult. Files often exceed several gigabytes and cannot be mounted natively by Windows or macOS. Standard online converters completely fail to process them because the compression algorithms are undocumented.
If you need to recover legacy data from a PowerQuest image, the ideal target format is a modern virtual disk like VHD or a standard ISO file, though this usually requires exporting from within the original legacy software. For PHREEQC users, the logical target format is simply TXT or CSV.
Because this file format is difficult to open or convert natively, you often hit frustrating dead ends. Just drag and drop your file into convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. We will inspect the hex headers to determine if you have a massive legacy disk image or a readable text script. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PQI file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted 002, SRR, BACKUP and EDZ files.
If you want to convert PQI file to BAK, BACKUP, OLD, TMP, TEMP, ARC, ZIP, TAR, GZ, 7Z, RAR or ISO, you can use Norton Ghost or similar software from the "Disk Image Backup" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert SNAPSHOT, OLD, IMG, RESTORE, ISO, COPY, VMDK, TMP, VHD, BAK, ARCHIVE or BACKUP files to PQI, try Norton Ghost or another comparable tool in the "Disk Image Backup" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our PQI converter.