[SOLVED] Clone 2TB HDD to 3TB HDD

[MichaelNowik]

Hi

I want to clone my 2 TB HDD to a 3 TB HDD.

Whats the best way to do that, now in 2021?

Is it possible to resize the partition from around 2 TB to 3 TB later on the second disk?

 

[jay32267]

Get free clone software.
Macrium is very popular.
I use Aeomei.
I know Aomei Pro allows you to expand the partition during cloning.
I'm not sure about Macrium.
...or you can expand it later.
...or you can just make another partition.

 

[lvt]

Is it possible to resize the partition from around 2 TB to 3 TB later on the second disk?

Yes you can, but it's highly recommended that you divide your 3TB disk to two partitions beforehand (2TB + 1TB).

 

[SkyNetRising]

it's highly recommended that you divide your 3TB disk to two partitions beforehand (2TB + 1TB).

Why?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I want to clone my 2 TB HDD to a 3 TB HDD.
Is it possible to resize the partition from around 2 TB to 3 TB later on the second disk?

1. you have to set partition style on 3TB drive to GPT. Or else you won't be able to use full capacity of the drive.
2. copy partition from 2TB drive to 3TB drive (partition to partition clone mode).
3. extend copied partition to use full capacity of 3TB drive.

Note. If windows is installed on 2TB drive and it has MBR partitioning, then clone result will be unbootable because of partition style conversion.

 

[lvt]

Why?

For a better disk management later.

 

[SkyNetRising]

For a better disk management later.

How exactly does that make disk management better?
Creating additional unnecessary partitions doesn't make anything better. Only if there is some specific purpose for doing this.

 

[lvt]

How exactly does that make disk management better?

To make the list of hard drives more clear, visually more understandable.

And having a dedicated partition for clone/backup task is a good idea, you won't accidentally put other data on that partition as existent data might be deleted during the cloning process.

 

[Grobe]

I guess most disk cloning software does include resizing of partitions to fill up the next disk if bigger. At least I know Clonezilla does, as I used it when I was about to upgrade to a bigger hdd in a laptop. It went very smooth, no issues whatsoever after that.

To make the list of hard drives more clear, visually more understandable.

Well that's a thing OP must figure. Why would 3 partitions be visually more understandable?

And having a dedicated partition for clone/backup task is a good idea, you won't accidentally put other data on that partition as existent data might be deleted during the cloning process.

What backup plan do you have in mind here?

 

[MichaelNowik]

Okay, thansk for the replies. I think I will clone the 2TB partition to the 3TB disk with some software. Then I will use a AOMEI guide to convert the partition to EXT4 from NTFS.

When I will have the 2TB partition finished as an EXT4 partition (on the new 3 TB HDD) I guess it will be GPT, or?

I will be using the AOMEI guide so I wonder if I also can use the free AOMEI program to clone the 2TB NTFS partition to the 3TB hdd?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Then I will use a AOMEI guide to convert the partition to EXT4 from NTFS.

What? Why EXT4?

If file system conversion is really, what is needed here (not sure why, though),
then just create empty partition on target drive in desired file system and copy data manually from source to target.

 

[MichaelNowik]

What? Why EXT4?

If file system conversion is really, what is needed here (not sure why, though),
then just create empty partition on target drive in desired file system and copy data manually from source to target.

I use Linux-Fedora as my primary OS because I feel that I need to distance myself from Windows-gaming. That is why I think that I need EXT4 and it will work fine with different Linux distros.

When it comes to copying files, do you know if I first can create a GPT EXT4 partition with AOMEI free?

 

[Grobe]

When it comes to copying files, do you know if I first can create a GPT EXT4 partition with AOMEI free?

I'd suggest you use Gparted for that. That tool is included in most distros live images (thaught it doesn't always being included when permanently installing OS).

 

[USAFRet]

Macrium has a specific function to resize the target partition during the clone operation. No need to do it after.

Is the current drive MBR or GPT?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes you can, but it's highly recommended that you divide your 3TB disk to two partitions beforehand (2TB + 1TB).

I can't agree with that concept.

 

[lvt]

I can't agree with that concept.

It's just a suggestion, there are alternatives of course.

As I mentioned in my post, some cloning software will delete all data to use the entire partition, so it's not a good idea to use the whole 3TB drive as a destination disk for a 2TB source drive. Unless you will not use it for anything else, but in this case, why a 3TB drive and not another identical 2TB drive?

 

[USAFRet]

It's just a suggestion, there are alternatives of course.

As I mentioned in my post, some cloning software will delete all data to use the entire partition, so it's not a good idea to use the whole 3TB drive as a destination disk for a 2TB source drive. Unless you will not use it for anything else, but in this case, why a 3TB drive and not another identical 2TB drive?

If there is data already existing on the target drive, thats a whole different thing.
And why would you do that?

Yes, of course, that needs individual partitions.
And a full backup, because accidents happen.

But yes, most clone tools expect the target drive to be blank.

 

[lvt]

If there is data already existing on the target drive, thats a whole different thing.
And why would you do that?

Yes, of course, that needs individual partitions.
And a full backup, because accidents happen.

But yes, most clone tools expect the target drive to be blank.

It could be a waste if you buy a 3TB drive just to store 2TB worth of data.

 

[USAFRet]

It could be a waste if you buy a 3TB drive just to store 2TB worth of data.

Future growth.

I just bought a 16TB.
It will replace the smallest in the NAS collection (2TB), moving the total size from 50TB to 64TB.

 

[JimmyNelson]

I thought this was “solved”, but I don’t see a definite solution.

At present I have a 2 TB HD running windows 7 that is low on disk space, I want to clone to a 3 TB HD so I can upgrade to windows 10 or 11. Straight cloning only resulted with a HD that was still low on disk space and a whole 1 TB of unallocated space that EaseUS could not extend to. Of course now we’re also talking about converting from MBR to GPT. Is this possible? What are the steps? None of the places I’ve looked is breaking this process down into easy to understand and duplicate steps.

Also I’m seeing where I also need to go into the bios and change how the computer boots up to be able to use the new disk should I be able to convert to GPT. Does this need to be done after cloning, or before?

 

[USAFRet]

I thought this was “solved”, but I don’t see a definite solution.

At present I have a 2 TB HD running windows 7 that is low on disk space, I want to clone to a 3 TB HD so I can upgrade to windows 10 or 11. Straight cloning only resulted with a HD that was still low on disk space and a whole 1 TB of unallocated space that EaseUS could not extend to. Of course now we’re also talking about converting from MBR to GPT. Is this possible? What are the steps? None of the places I’ve looked is breaking this process down into easy to understand and duplicate steps.

You need to start a whole new thread for your particular situation.
This one is3 years old.

Likely we can get you to a solution, but not in this thread.