QCOW2 Converter

Extract text from QCOW2 files


Drop or upload your .QCOW2 file
✈

How to extract text from your QCOW2 file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your QCOW2 file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert QCOW2 to another file type

To convert your QCOW2 file to another format, you need QEMU or other Disk Image software.

Convert a file to QCOW2

To convert other file formats to the "Virtualization Image" file type, you need software like QEMU or a similar tool.


About QCOW2 files

A .QCOW2 file is a QEMU Copy On Write Version 2 disk image, the default storage format for the QEMU emulator and KVM-based hypervisors like Proxmox VE and OpenStack. Unlike raw disk images, .QCOW2 files support thin provisioning (growing in size only as data is added), AES encryption, zlib compression, and multiple VM snapshots. While highly efficient for Linux-based virtualization, this format presents significant compatibility hurdles for users operating in mixed environments. It is not natively recognized by VMware Workstation, VMware ESXi, or Microsoft Hyper-V, requiring users to install the qemu-img command-line toolkit just to access or migrate data. Furthermore, mounting these images on Windows to retrieve individual files is notoriously difficult without specialized drivers. To ensure cross-platform compatibility, users should convert .QCOW2 files to VMDK for use with VMware products, VHDX for Microsoft Hyper-V deployment, or RAW / IMG for maximum portability and faster I/O performance in cloud environments like AWS.

Convert.Guru analyzes your QCOW2 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted QCOW, XZ, ISO, OVA, VMDK, IMG, ZIP, VDI, GZ, JPG, PLIST, FRW and APK files.


FAQ

If you want to convert QCOW2 file to VMDK, RAW, ISO, OVA, VDI, VHDX, IMG, VHD, DMG, HDD, QCOW or VBOX, you can use QEMU or similar software from the "Virtual Machine Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert VFD, DMG, OVA, IMA, VBOX, ADF, PVS, VHD, OVF, ISO, DSK or IMG files to QCOW2, try QEMU or another comparable tool in the "Virtual Machine Storage" category.



The QCOW2 Converter Story

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 QCOW2 converter.