Copy Windows installation from 1TB to 4TB SSD

A friend of mine currently has a 1TB SSD installed in their laptop. I believe that it is set up as an MBR disk partitioning scheme. She has just purchased a 4TB SSD to replace the 1TB SSD. MBR disks have a 2TB limit. How do we transfer the system from the 1 TB SSD to the 4TB SSD and use the 4TB as a single partition? We cannot modify what is on the 1TB disks.

We did try to clone the disk from the 1TB to the 4TB with AOMEI Backupper, converting the disk to GPT on the clone, and with SSD alignment. The laptop will not boot from the clone drive.

If it matters, the BIOS on the laptop can support Legacy booting as well as UEFI booting.

I don't have the laptop handy, so I can't provide any more details, unfortunately.

1) Please make free or pay backup images using Macrium.



Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect:





2) Clean install Windows 11 on the new 4TB drive with BIOS UEFI (without CSM)







3) Use Macrium to restore only the C: partition from the 1TB MBR drive to the new 4TB GPT drive.

There's a raft of possible causes, but you'll need the laptop on hand to go through them.

Quick reference:

Calab said:

a 1TB SSD installed in their laptop

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First of all you need to check the specs in the laptop manual. Not all motherboards (or bios)will accept a 4tb drive. You give us nothing regarding the laptop in question. If the current drive was formatted from the factory as MBR, it would seem it's old enough that the new drivet probably won't work in that device..
If it won't then all the rest of your questions are moot.

Calab said:

use the 4TB as a single partition?

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Secondly, Even if the motherboard recognizes the new drive as 4tb, I don't think you are going to like the limitations of using a 4tb MBR drive. You can't use the 4tb drive as MBR with one partition. Period.

I had AI lay the limitations of a MBR drive with references:

A Master boot record (MBR) drive has several major technical limitations due to its 1980s architecture: [1, 2]

• 2 TB Capacity Limit: MBR uses 32-bit fields to store sector addresses. With standard 512-byte sectors, it can only address up to 2³² sectors, capping the maximum usable disk or partition size at approximately 2.2 TB (2 TB practical). Any storage space beyond 2 TB on a larger drive cannot be addressed or used. [1, 2, 3]
• 4 Primary Partitions Limit: MBR allows a maximum of four primary partitions per disk. To bypass this restriction, you have to create an extended partition containing multiple logical drives, which adds complexity to disk management. [1, 2]
• Single Point of Failure: MBR stores all partition and boot information in a single sector at the very beginning of the drive. If this sector or partition table gets corrupted or overwritten, data recovery can be very difficult or result in total boot failure. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• No Built-in Data Redundancy or Checksums: Unlike GPT (GUID Partition Table), MBR does not keep backup copies of its partition table and lacks CRC checksums to verify data integrity or automatically repair corrupted structures. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Legacy BIOS Dependency: MBR is designed around traditional 16-bit BIOS systems. While it can work on modern UEFI systems if Compatibility Support Module (CSM) or legacy boot mode is enabled, it cannot take full advantage of modern UEFI features like Secure Boot for large boot drives. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Calab said:

We cannot modify what is on the 1TB disks.

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Never say never. Even if the laptop will recognize the drive as 4tb (and personally I do not think it will), you would have to first convert the existing installation on the 1 tb drive to GPT, then either clone it to the 4tb or make an image of the 1tb which could be restored to the new drive. You would then have to deal with extending the system partition into the extra unallocated space.
Doing all this comes with extreme risks.