diff --git a/block/vdi.c b/block/vdi.c
index 197bd77c97..070acb622b 100644
--- a/block/vdi.c
+++ b/block/vdi.c
@@ -53,13 +53,6 @@
 #include "block/block_int.h"
 #include "qemu/module.h"
 #include "migration/migration.h"
-#ifdef __linux__
-#include <linux/fs.h>
-#include <sys/ioctl.h>
-#ifndef FS_NOCOW_FL
-#define FS_NOCOW_FL                     0x00800000 /* Do not cow file */
-#endif
-#endif
 
 #if defined(CONFIG_UUID)
 #include <uuid/uuid.h>
@@ -681,7 +674,6 @@ static int vdi_co_write(BlockDriverState *bs,
 
 static int vdi_create(const char *filename, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
 {
-    int fd;
     int result = 0;
     uint64_t bytes = 0;
     uint32_t blocks;
@@ -690,7 +682,10 @@ static int vdi_create(const char *filename, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
     VdiHeader header;
     size_t i;
     size_t bmap_size;
-    bool nocow = false;
+    int64_t offset = 0;
+    Error *local_err = NULL;
+    BlockDriverState *bs = NULL;
+    uint32_t *bmap = NULL;
 
     logout("\n");
 
@@ -707,7 +702,6 @@ static int vdi_create(const char *filename, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
         image_type = VDI_TYPE_STATIC;
     }
 #endif
-    nocow = qemu_opt_get_bool_del(opts, BLOCK_OPT_NOCOW, false);
 
     if (bytes > VDI_DISK_SIZE_MAX) {
         result = -ENOTSUP;
@@ -717,27 +711,16 @@ static int vdi_create(const char *filename, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
         goto exit;
     }
 
-    fd = qemu_open(filename,
-                   O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_BINARY | O_LARGEFILE,
-                   0644);
-    if (fd < 0) {
-        result = -errno;
+    result = bdrv_create_file(filename, opts, &local_err);
+    if (result < 0) {
+        error_propagate(errp, local_err);
         goto exit;
     }
-
-    if (nocow) {
-#ifdef __linux__
-        /* Set NOCOW flag to solve performance issue on fs like btrfs.
-         * This is an optimisation. The FS_IOC_SETFLAGS ioctl return value will
-         * be ignored since any failure of this operation should not block the
-         * left work.
-         */
-        int attr;
-        if (ioctl(fd, FS_IOC_GETFLAGS, &attr) == 0) {
-            attr |= FS_NOCOW_FL;
-            ioctl(fd, FS_IOC_SETFLAGS, &attr);
-        }
-#endif
+    result = bdrv_open(&bs, filename, NULL, NULL, BDRV_O_RDWR | BDRV_O_PROTOCOL,
+                       NULL, &local_err);
+    if (result < 0) {
+        error_propagate(errp, local_err);
+        goto exit;
     }
 
     /* We need enough blocks to store the given disk size,
@@ -769,13 +752,15 @@ static int vdi_create(const char *filename, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
     vdi_header_print(&header);
 #endif
     vdi_header_to_le(&header);
-    if (write(fd, &header, sizeof(header)) < 0) {
-        result = -errno;
-        goto close_and_exit;
+    result = bdrv_pwrite_sync(bs, offset, &header, sizeof(header));
+    if (result < 0) {
+        error_setg(errp, "Error writing header to %s", filename);
+        goto exit;
     }
+    offset += sizeof(header);
 
     if (bmap_size > 0) {
-        uint32_t *bmap = g_malloc0(bmap_size);
+        bmap = g_malloc0(bmap_size);
         for (i = 0; i < blocks; i++) {
             if (image_type == VDI_TYPE_STATIC) {
                 bmap[i] = i;
@@ -783,27 +768,25 @@ static int vdi_create(const char *filename, QemuOpts *opts, Error **errp)
                 bmap[i] = VDI_UNALLOCATED;
             }
         }
-        if (write(fd, bmap, bmap_size) < 0) {
-            result = -errno;
-            g_free(bmap);
-            goto close_and_exit;
+        result = bdrv_pwrite_sync(bs, offset, bmap, bmap_size);
+        if (result < 0) {
+            error_setg(errp, "Error writing bmap to %s", filename);
+            goto exit;
         }
-        g_free(bmap);
+        offset += bmap_size;
     }
 
     if (image_type == VDI_TYPE_STATIC) {
-        if (ftruncate(fd, sizeof(header) + bmap_size + blocks * block_size)) {
-            result = -errno;
-            goto close_and_exit;
+        result = bdrv_truncate(bs, offset + blocks * block_size);
+        if (result < 0) {
+            error_setg(errp, "Failed to statically allocate %s", filename);
+            goto exit;
         }
     }
 
-close_and_exit:
-    if ((close(fd) < 0) && !result) {
-        result = -errno;
-    }
-
 exit:
+    bdrv_unref(bs);
+    g_free(bmap);
     return result;
 }