Can’t Copy Or Migrate A ≤2TiB Drive To A ≥2TiB Drive

Scenario

You want to migrate your system from a drive smaller than 2 TiB to one bigger than 2 TiB, and the program doesn’t let you perform this operation.

Reason

This happens if the old drive is partitioned as MBR and not as GPT. The maximum addressable space for the MBR layout is 2 TiB. The copy must have the same partitioning layout as the original, but drives bigger than 2 TiB can’t be partitioned as MBR (it’s technically possible, but only the first 2 TiB would be addressable). That’s why copying is refused; it’s an unfortunate limitation caused by the shift in technology.

Solution

If the source drive is only used for data storage, you can convert it to GPT before copying. Alternatively, you can initialize the destination drive as GPT and copy partitions one-by-one, resizing as necessary.

If the source is a bootable operating system drive, conversion alone is insufficient. Booting Windows from GPT is very different from booting from MBR. It requires a UEFI-based BIOS, a special EFI system partition on the drive, different Windows boot files, and a special record in the BIOS NVRAM. These can only be created when doing a new Windows installation. If your BIOS is EFI-compliant, here’s how you can migrate.

1. Make sure the destination drive is initialised as GPT and has no partitions. It needs to be fully unallocated. Plug it into the position where you plan to leave it; changing drive position would require additional boot corrections later.
2. Make a fresh Windows installation on the destination drive. It must be the same version of Windows as you’re migrating. Don’t create any partitions, let Windows use default partitioning.
3. Copy the old system partition to the new drive, overwriting the newly installed Windows partition. There should be another small partition containing the recovery image and boot files; it’s important that you leave it alone.
4. Copy any additional partitions, resizing them as necessary.

After these operations, the new system should be functional.

Backup & Recovery, Copy, Drive Copy, Hard Disk Manager™ for Windows, Migrate OS to SSD, Migration, Virtualization
Tags: compatibility, copy, issue, migration, windows

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