Extract text from QIC files
To convert your QIC file to another format, you need Microsoft Backup or other Backup software.
To convert other file formats to the "Legacy Archive" file type, you need software like Microsoft Backup or a similar tool.
A .QIC file is a legacy backup archive created by the Microsoft Backup utility, a standard tool included with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME. These files are essentially digital containers originally designed to mirror the structure of physical Quarter-Inch Cartridge (QIC) magnetic tapes, even when saved to a local hard drive or floppy disk.
Users typically encounter these files when recovering data from old family computers or archiving legacy business data. A common issue is that Windows 10 and Windows 11 completely lack the native ability to open, mount, or view these files; the MSBACKUP.EXE utility that created them is 16-bit software that does not run on modern 64-bit operating systems. Furthermore, the format is a proprietary compressed blob, meaning you cannot simply rename it to ZIP or open it with 7-Zip.
To access the contents - often old photos, DOC documents, or financial records - the file must be parsed and extracted. The ideal conversion target is ZIP, which preserves the directory structure in a universally compatible format, or PDF for archiving any extracted documents.
Convert.Guru analyzes your QIC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted QIF, COPY0, TRN and BDB files.
If you want to convert QIC file to BAK, BACKUP, OLD, TMP, TEMP, ARC, ZIP, TAR, GZ, 7Z, RAR or ISO, you can use Microsoft Backup or similar software from the "Tape Backup Archive" 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 QIC, try Microsoft Backup or another comparable tool in the "Tape Backup Archive" 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 QIC converter.