diff --git a/qemu-img.c b/qemu-img.c
index d7e846e607..bdb9f6aa46 100644
--- a/qemu-img.c
+++ b/qemu-img.c
@@ -2084,15 +2084,6 @@ static int convert_do_copy(ImgConvertState *s)
         s->has_zero_init = bdrv_has_zero_init(blk_bs(s->target));
     }
 
-    if (!s->has_zero_init && !s->target_has_backing &&
-        bdrv_can_write_zeroes_with_unmap(blk_bs(s->target)))
-    {
-        ret = blk_make_zero(s->target, BDRV_REQ_MAY_UNMAP | BDRV_REQ_NO_FALLBACK);
-        if (ret == 0) {
-            s->has_zero_init = true;
-        }
-    }
-
     /* Allocate buffer for copied data. For compressed images, only one cluster
      * can be copied at a time. */
     if (s->compressed) {