PHYSICAL-TO-VIRTUAL BUILD DOCUMENTATION

Architecture

Simple before-and-after P2V topology.

Architecture

BEFORE
Source Windows 11 PC
  ├── guide + saved state → migration drive
  └── VHDX               → migration drive

SEPARATE DEVICE
Proxmox installer USB → erased and used only for installation

AFTER — RECOMMENDED TWO-DISK LAYOUT
Original Windows SSD/NVMe ── left intact for firmware boot-menu fallback
Second SSD/NVMe ──────────── Proxmox VE 9.2
Second PC ──HTTPS───────────> Proxmox VE 9.2
                               └── Windows 11 VM
                          ├── OVMF / UEFI
                          ├── TPM 2.0
                          ├── VirtIO SCSI
                          ├── VirtIO NIC
                          └── QEMU Guest Agent

Network

LAN:        {{NETWORK_CIDR}}
Gateway:    {{DEFAULT_GATEWAY}}
DHCP pool:  {{DHCP_START}} - {{DHCP_END}}
Proxmox:    {{PROXMOX_IP_CIDR}}
Windows VM: {{WINDOWS_VM_IP}}

Proxmox and Windows must use different IP addresses.

Storage

Original Windows disk
  → left intact on the recommended two-disk path

Windows volume
  → Disk2vhd
  → migration-drive VHDX
  → SHA-256 verified again on Proxmox
  → qm importdisk
  → secondary Proxmox disk / local
  → VirtIO SCSI boot

Keep the VHDX until a tested Proxmox backup exists. On the recommended two-disk path, also keep the original Windows disk untouched until the VM and backup have both been tested.