How to open QEMU Copy-On-Write data .qcow files
Have you had trouble opening the qcow file on your computer? What are qcow files? We explain what they are and recommend software that we know will open them.
What is qcow file?
A qcow file extension is related to the QEMU Copy-On-Write file format used to store disk images.
QEMU Copy-On-Write data description
The qcow image format is one of the disk image formats supported by the QEMU processor emulator. It is a representation of a fixed size block device in a file. Benefits it offers over using raw dump representation include:
- Smaller file size, even on filesystems which don't support holes (i.e. sparse files)
- Copy-on-write support, where the image only represents changes made to an underlying disk image
- Snapshot support, where the image can contain multiple snapshots of the images history
- Optional zlib based compression
- Optional AES encryption
Suggested software to open qcow file
Qemu Manager
A management tool for the QEMU emulator

QEMU
A generic machine emulator and virtualizer