diff --git a/src/disk.sh b/src/disk.sh
index fae10fb..549e7d9 100644
--- a/src/disk.sh
+++ b/src/disk.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ set -Eeuo pipefail
 : ${DISK_CACHE:='none'}   # Caching mode, can be set to 'writeback' for better performance
 : ${DISK_DISCARD:='on'}   # Controls whether unmap (TRIM) commands are passed to the host.
 : ${DISK_ROTATION:='1'}   # Rotation rate, set to 1 for SSD storage and increase for HDD
+: ${DISK_FLAGS:='nocow=on'}   # Specify the options for use with the qcow2 format
 
 BOOT="$STORAGE/$BASE.boot.img"
 SYSTEM="$STORAGE/$BASE.system.img"
@@ -23,8 +24,6 @@ DISK_OPTS="\
     -drive file=$SYSTEM,if=none,id=drive-synosys,format=raw,cache=$DISK_CACHE,aio=$DISK_IO,discard=$DISK_DISCARD,detect-zeroes=on \
     -device scsi-hd,bus=hw-synosys.0,channel=0,scsi-id=0,lun=0,drive=drive-synosys,id=synosys0,rotation_rate=$DISK_ROTATION,bootindex=2"
 
-: ${QCOW_FLAGS:='nocow=on,preallocation=metadata,lazy_refcounts=on'}
-
 fmt2ext() {
   local DISK_FMT=$1
 
@@ -123,7 +122,7 @@ resizeDisk() {
       fi
       ;;
     qcow2)
-      if ! qemu-img resize -f "$DISK_FMT" "$DISK_FILE" "$DISK_SPACE" ; then
+      if ! qemu-img resize -f "$DISK_FMT" -o "$DISK_FLAGS" "$DISK_FILE" "$DISK_SPACE" ; then
         error "$FAIL" && exit 72
       fi
       ;;
@@ -139,12 +138,12 @@ convertDisk() {
 
   case "$DST_FMT" in
     qcow2)
-      CONV_FLAGS="$CONV_FLAGS -c -o $QCOW_FLAGS"
+      CONV_FLAGS="$CONV_FLAGS -c -o $DISK_FLAGS"
       ;;
   esac
 
   # shellcheck disable=SC2086
-  qemu-img convert $CONV_FLAGS -f "$SOURCE_FMT" -O "$DST_FMT" -- "$SOURCE_FILE" "$DST_FILE"
+  qemu-img convert -f "$SOURCE_FMT" $CONV_FLAGS -O "$DST_FMT" -- "$SOURCE_FILE" "$DST_FILE"
 }
 
 createDisk() {
@@ -188,7 +187,7 @@ createDisk() {
       fi
       ;;
     qcow2)
-      if ! qemu-img create -f "$DISK_FMT" -o "$QCOW_FLAGS" -- "$DISK_FILE" "$DISK_SPACE" ; then
+      if ! qemu-img create -f "$DISK_FMT" -o "$DISK_FLAGS" -- "$DISK_FILE" "$DISK_SPACE" ; then
         rm -f "$DISK_FILE"
         error "$FAIL" && exit 70
       fi