Always verify the conversion by booting the qcow2 image before deleting the original. The windows98.qcow2 combination represents the most flexible, efficient, and historically accurate way to run Microsoft’s classic OS on modern hardware. Qcow2’s snapshotting, compression, and backing file features turn Windows 98 from a fragile relic into a practical tool for retro-computing, software preservation, and legacy testing.
qemu-img snapshot -c before_install win98.qcow2 List snapshots: windows 98 qcow2
qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b win98_clean.qcow2 win98_gaming.qcow2 The child image stores only changes; the base remains read-only. To commit changes back to base: Always verify the conversion by booting the qcow2
qemu-img snapshot -l win98.qcow2 Revert to snapshot: qemu-img snapshot -c before_install win98
# VMDK to qcow2 qemu-img convert -f vmdk windows98.vmdk -O qcow2 win98.qcow2 qemu-img convert -f vdi windows98.vdi -O qcow2 win98.qcow2 Raw IMG to qcow2 qemu-img convert -f raw windows98.img -O qcow2 win98.qcow2
qemu-img convert -O qcow2 -c win98.qcow2 win98_compacted.qcow2 The -c flag enables compression. This can shrink a 2 GB logical image to 300–500 MB. Snapshots for Safe Tinkering Take a snapshot before installing dubious software: