Drives larger than 2 terabytes

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I bought a 4 terabyte SSD to replace the 1 terabyte in my laptop running Windows 10 64-bit. I have the new drive connected to a USB to SATA adapter. If I go to disk management, it will only format to 2 terabytes. The BIOS is set to UEFI and the drive is set to a GPT partition. If I put the new drive in a desktop computer connected to internal SATA ports, I can format it to the full 4 terabytes.

If I then connect the formatted drive to the laptop’s USB port and SATA adapter, it will see the full 4 terabytes. If I then try to clone the internal drive to the external drive, the 2-terabyte limit is reached.

Why is the USB ports not allowing me to use a drive bigger than 2 terabytes and is there a way around this or am I forced to use a desktop computer’s SATA ports?

 

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USB is a simple “serial” communication device that transmits data bits back & forth between the PC and whatever’s on the other end of the USB connection and the only limit that applies is how “fast” it can transmit the data. It has absolutely no awareness of the storage capacity of a particular device but will keep transmitting bits until it’s told to stop by either the PC or the device on the other end of the USB connection.

Your problem is most likely the SATA adapter you’re using doesn’t support drives larger than 2 TB, not all such adapters do!

What make/model is the SATA adapter and do the specs show it supports drives larger than 2 TB?

Regardless…

You indicated you bought the 4 TB drive to replace the 1 TB currently in your laptop so I “assume” you’re using the external SATA adapter so you can copy the existing Windows install onto the new SSD before placing it into the laptop.

Here’s how to deal with the 2 TB limit you’re hitting and still have a 4 TB drive when you’re done.

• Delete all the partitions on the new 4 TB drive.

• Create a 1.5 TB partition on it and leave the other 2.5 TB unallocated.

• Format it as GPT.

• Using the external SATA adapter and the S/W you’re using, copy the existing Windows installation onto the new SSD.

• Place it into the laptop and ensure it boots into Windows properly.

• Merge the unallocated portion into the main Windows partition.

• You’ll now have a working 4 TB drive in the laptop.

Note: merging the unallocated portion into the main Windows partition can either be very easy or a bit more difficult depending on exactly where the “other” two Windows partitions (EFI and Recovery) are located on the drive.

If they’re both in front of the main partition, you can use Windows Disk Management to simply extend the main partition to include the unallocated portion.

If one or more of them is located after the main partition (i.e. “between” the main partition and the unallocated portion), you’ll need to use a 3rd party utility (like the free GParted) to “move” the unallocated portion adjacent to the main partition and then merge them together.

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Thanks. Last night as I was trying to sleep it came to me a “What if I clone the 1TB to the 4TB and let it only use half of the 4TB. If I then put the 4TB in the laptop, will I be able to see the missing back half of the drive?”

I just tried it and the answer is YES! I then used a program to resize the “C:” drive to use the rest of the drive. I don’t like the one built into Windows, too confusing.

Strange how something to try will come to you when you are doing something else.

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