Difference between pages "QCOW Image Format" and "Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)"

Revision as of 02:19, 13 September 2012

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-[[QEMU]] uses the '''QEMU Copy-On-Write (QCOW)''' files to store a disk image.
+{{expand}}
-== MIME types ==
+== Image types ==
+* Fixed-size hard disk image
+* Dynamic-size (or sparse) hard disk image
+* Differencing hard disk image
-== File signature ==
+== External Links ==
-QCOW files start with hexadecimal: 0x51 0x46 0x49 0xfb (ASCII: "QFI.")
-== File types ==
+* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHD_(file_format) VHD (file format)], by Wikipedia
-Currently there two are versions of the QCOW format; version 1 and 2. Version 2 is the preferred format.
+* [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676673.aspx Virtual Hard Disk Image Format Specification], by Microsoft
-== Contents ==
-The QCOW format is used to store storage media data, e.g. disk images.
-The QCOW image file consists of:
-* the file header
-* the L1 table (cluster aligned)
-* the reference count table (cluster aligned)
-* reference count blocks
-* snapshot headers (8-byte aligned on cluster boundary)
-* clusters containing:
-** L2 tables
-** storage media data
-The clusters are 512 bytes of size
-== Encryption ==
-The QCOW2 format supports optional AES encryption
-== See Also ==
-* [[Disk Images]]
-== External Links ==
-* [http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/qcow-image-format-version-1.html The QCOW Image Format]
-* [http://people.gnome.org/~markmc/qcow-image-format.html The QCOW2 Image Format]
 [[Category:File Formats]]