diff --git a/deployment/data-model.nix b/deployment/data-model.nix
index acc06617..b4ac2211 100644
--- a/deployment/data-model.nix
+++ b/deployment/data-model.nix
@@ -466,6 +466,7 @@ let
                   inherit sources system;
                   configuration = tf-host.config.nixos-configuration;
                 };
+                inherit (machine.config.boot.uki) name;
 
                 environment = {
                   key_file = key-file;
@@ -478,7 +479,7 @@ let
                   proxmox_password = proxmox-password;
                   ssh_user = username;
                   node_name = node-name;
-                  image = "${machine.config.system.build.image}/${machine.config.boot.uki.name}.raw";
+                  # image = "${machine.config.system.build.image}/${name}.raw";
                 };
                 tf-env = pkgs.callPackage ./run/tf-proxmox/tf-env.nix { };
                 proxmox-host = "192.168.51.81"; # root@fediversity-proxmox
@@ -511,7 +512,11 @@ let
                   # cp $tmpdir/${vm_name}_host_key.pub /mnt/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
                   # chmod 644 /mnt/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
 
+                  # .qcow2 is around half the size of .raw, on top of supporting backups - be it apparently at the cost of performance
+                  qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 -C "${machine.config.system.build.image}/${name}.raw" /tmp/${name}.qcow2
+
                   env ${toString (lib.mapAttrsToList (k: v: "TF_VAR_${k}=\"${toBash v}\"") environment)} \
+                  TF_VAR_image=/tmp/${name}.qcow2 \
                   tf_env=${tf-env} bash ./deployment/run/tf-proxmox/run.sh
                 '';
           };
diff --git a/deployment/run/tf-proxmox/main.tf b/deployment/run/tf-proxmox/main.tf
index 3c16bb6b..da2b8318 100644
--- a/deployment/run/tf-proxmox/main.tf
+++ b/deployment/run/tf-proxmox/main.tf
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ terraform {
 }
 
 locals {
-  dump_name = "qemu-nixos-fediversity-${var.category}.raw"
+  dump_name = "qemu-nixos-fediversity-${var.category}.qcow2"
 }
 
 # https://registry.terraform.io/providers/bpg/proxmox/latest/docs
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_vm" "nix_vm" {
   disk {
     # datastore_id = "linstor_storage"
     datastore_id = "local"
-    file_format  = "raw"
+    file_format  = "qcow2"
     interface    = "scsi0"
     discard      = "on"
     iothread     = true
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ resource "proxmox_virtual_environment_vm" "nix_vm" {
   efi_disk {
     # datastore_id = "linstor_storage"
     datastore_id = "local"
-    file_format  = "raw"
+    file_format  = "qcow2"
     type         = "4m"
   }