Windows Xpqcow2 -

qemu-img create -f qcow2 windows-xp.qcow2 20G

All while the “image” sat on my NVMe drive, taking just 1.8 GB on disk. windows xpqcow2

qemu-system-i386 -m 1024 -cpu pentium3 -smp 1 \ -drive file=windows_xp.qcow2,format=qcow2,index=0,media=disk \ -cdrom /path/to/windows_xp_sp3.iso \ -boot d -vga std -net nic,model=rtl8139 -net user Use code with caution. Key Parameters Explained: qemu-img create -f qcow2 windows-xp

This means Windows XP lost access to the boot drive. Ensure your QEMU command line is explicitly using if=ide or bus=0,unit=0,if=ide . If you tried switching to VirtIO without pre-installing the drivers, the OS will crash with this error. windows xpqcow2