diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/docker-preloader.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/docker-preloader.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 6ab83058dee1..000000000000
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/docker-preloader.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,134 +0,0 @@
-{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
-
-with lib;
-with builtins;
-
-let
-  cfg = config.virtualisation;
-
-  sanitizeImageName = image: replaceStrings ["/"] ["-"] image.imageName;
-  hash = drv: head (split "-" (baseNameOf drv.outPath));
-  # The label of an ext4 FS is limited to 16 bytes
-  labelFromImage = image: substring 0 16 (hash image);
-
-  # The Docker image is loaded and some files from /var/lib/docker/
-  # are written into a qcow image.
-  preload = image: pkgs.vmTools.runInLinuxVM (
-    pkgs.runCommand "docker-preload-image-${sanitizeImageName image}" {
-      buildInputs = with pkgs; [ docker e2fsprogs utillinux curl kmod ];
-      preVM = pkgs.vmTools.createEmptyImage {
-        size = cfg.dockerPreloader.qcowSize;
-        fullName = "docker-deamon-image.qcow2";
-      };
-    }
-    ''
-      mkfs.ext4 /dev/vda
-      e2label /dev/vda ${labelFromImage image}
-      mkdir -p /var/lib/docker
-      mount -t ext4 /dev/vda /var/lib/docker
-
-      modprobe overlay
-
-      # from https://github.com/tianon/cgroupfs-mount/blob/master/cgroupfs-mount
-      mount -t tmpfs -o uid=0,gid=0,mode=0755 cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup
-      cd /sys/fs/cgroup
-      for sys in $(awk '!/^#/ { if ($4 == 1) print $1 }' /proc/cgroups); do
-        mkdir -p $sys
-        if ! mountpoint -q $sys; then
-          if ! mount -n -t cgroup -o $sys cgroup $sys; then
-            rmdir $sys || true
-          fi
-        fi
-      done
-
-      dockerd -H tcp://127.0.0.1:5555 -H unix:///var/run/docker.sock &
-
-      until $(curl --output /dev/null --silent --connect-timeout 2 http://127.0.0.1:5555); do
-        printf '.'
-        sleep 1
-      done
-
-      docker load -i ${image}
-
-      kill %1
-      find /var/lib/docker/ -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name "image" -not -name "overlay2" | xargs rm -rf
-    '');
-
-  preloadedImages = map preload cfg.dockerPreloader.images;
-
-in
-
-{
-  options.virtualisation.dockerPreloader = {
-    images = mkOption {
-      default = [ ];
-      type = types.listOf types.package;
-      description =
-      ''
-        A list of Docker images to preload (in the /var/lib/docker directory).
-      '';
-    };
-    qcowSize = mkOption {
-      default = 1024;
-      type = types.int;
-      description =
-      ''
-        The size (MB) of qcow files.
-      '';
-    };
-  };
-
-  config = mkIf (cfg.dockerPreloader.images != []) {
-    assertions = [{
-      # If docker.storageDriver is null, Docker choose the storage
-      # driver. So, in this case, we cannot be sure overlay2 is used.
-      assertion = cfg.docker.storageDriver == "overlay2"
-        || cfg.docker.storageDriver == "overlay"
-        || cfg.docker.storageDriver == null;
-      message = "The Docker image Preloader only works with overlay2 storage driver!";
-    }];
-
-    virtualisation.qemu.options =
-      map (path: "-drive if=virtio,file=${path}/disk-image.qcow2,readonly,media=cdrom,format=qcow2")
-      preloadedImages;
-
-
-    # All attached QCOW files are mounted and their contents are linked
-    # to /var/lib/docker/ in order to make image available.
-    systemd.services.docker-preloader = {
-      description = "Preloaded Docker images";
-      wantedBy = ["docker.service"];
-      after = ["network.target"];
-      path = with pkgs; [ mount rsync jq ];
-      script = ''
-        mkdir -p /var/lib/docker/overlay2/l /var/lib/docker/image/overlay2
-        echo '{}' > /tmp/repositories.json
-
-        for i in ${concatStringsSep " " (map labelFromImage cfg.dockerPreloader.images)}; do
-          mkdir -p /mnt/docker-images/$i
-
-          # The ext4 label is limited to 16 bytes
-          mount /dev/disk/by-label/$(echo $i | cut -c1-16) -o ro,noload /mnt/docker-images/$i
-
-          find /mnt/docker-images/$i/overlay2/ -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -not -name l\
-             -exec ln -s '{}' /var/lib/docker/overlay2/ \;
-          cp -P /mnt/docker-images/$i/overlay2/l/* /var/lib/docker/overlay2/l/
-
-          rsync -a /mnt/docker-images/$i/image/ /var/lib/docker/image/
-
-          # Accumulate image definitions
-          cp /tmp/repositories.json /tmp/repositories.json.tmp
-          jq -s '.[0] * .[1]' \
-            /tmp/repositories.json.tmp \
-            /mnt/docker-images/$i/image/overlay2/repositories.json \
-            > /tmp/repositories.json
-        done
-
-        mv /tmp/repositories.json /var/lib/docker/image/overlay2/repositories.json
-      '';
-      serviceConfig = {
-        Type = "oneshot";
-      };
-    };
-  };
-}
diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix
index a650dd72c2a4..42e43f5ee023 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix
@@ -264,7 +264,6 @@ in
 {
   imports = [
     ../profiles/qemu-guest.nix
-   ./docker-preloader.nix
   ];
 
   options = {
diff --git a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
index 58ee1c920ad6..346407f99385 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@ in
   docker = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./docker.nix {};
   oci-containers = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./oci-containers.nix {};
   docker-edge = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./docker-edge.nix {};
-  docker-preloader = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./docker-preloader.nix {};
   docker-registry = handleTest ./docker-registry.nix {};
   docker-tools = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./docker-tools.nix {};
   docker-tools-overlay = handleTestOn ["x86_64-linux"] ./docker-tools-overlay.nix {};
diff --git a/nixos/tests/docker-preloader.nix b/nixos/tests/docker-preloader.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 0cf001792e30..000000000000
--- a/nixos/tests/docker-preloader.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-import ./make-test-python.nix ({ pkgs, ...} : {
-  name = "docker-preloader";
-  meta = with pkgs.stdenv.lib.maintainers; {
-    maintainers = [ lewo ];
-    broken = true; # fails with "read-only file system" error
-  };
-
-  nodes = {
-    docker =
-      { pkgs, ... }:
-        {
-          virtualisation.docker.enable = true;
-          virtualisation.dockerPreloader.images = [ pkgs.dockerTools.examples.nix pkgs.dockerTools.examples.bash ];
-
-          services.openssh.enable = true;
-          services.openssh.permitRootLogin = "yes";
-          services.openssh.extraConfig = "PermitEmptyPasswords yes";
-          users.extraUsers.root.password = "";
-        };
-  };
-  testScript = ''
-    start_all()
-
-    docker.wait_for_unit("sockets.target")
-    docker.succeed("docker run nix nix-store --version")
-    docker.succeed("docker run bash bash --version")
-  '';
-})