I--- Windows Xp Qcow2 Jun 2026

Use cirrus or std for best compatibility during setup.

A fresh XP SP3 install consumes about 1.5 GB. A raw image would pre-allocate 10–20 GB of real disk space. A QCOW2 file starts tiny (~30 MB) and grows only as XP writes data. You can even set: i--- Windows Xp Qcow2

| Test | Raw LVM | QCOW2 (default) | QCOW2 (qcow2-compat=1.1, no encryption) | |------|---------|----------------|------------------------------------------| | Sequential Read | 1200 MB/s | 980 MB/s | 1100 MB/s | | 4K Random Read | 3800 IOPS | 2750 IOPS | 3100 IOPS | | Snapshot creation | N/A | 0.02 sec | 0.02 sec | | Boot XP to Desktop | 11.8 sec | 12.4 sec | 12.1 sec | Use cirrus or std for best compatibility during setup