Can I clone a 2TB drive to a new 4TB drive?

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

I want to upgrade to a 4TB drive, but only if I can clone the existing 2TB to it. I’ve read though that the sector size on a 2TB is 512, and on a 4TB it’s 4k, so it’s not possible to clone because of the different sector sizes.

Is this true or is there any way around it?

Thanks for any input.

2

Hello,

I think it will be better if you contact WD Support directly to see if they have that information available.

WD Contact info:

3

Thanks, I was actually thinking of doing that any way about something else. I also wanted to know the running temperatures of their various drives. I know I’ve seen a chart with that info somewhere before I bought my green drives, which was what prompted me to get them, but I can’t find that info anywhere now.

One computer is in a bedroom, and the heat build up from the PC in the summer is bad. The green drives have never hit over 32°C even in that small room (in another larger room they usually stay around 28-29°C). So in my situation, the heat output is something I need to consider. Two drives running at 32°C vs two at 40°C or more makes a huge difference in that room.

4

I have a WD 4TB Internal HDD and it’s sector size is 512

My WD 4TB External HDD is sector size 4096 (4k Advanced Format)

i think you’ll find only External HDD’s use 4k Advanced Format

But in any case, when you clone your HDD … Don’t use “Sector-by-Sector Copy”

eg. using Aeomi Partitiion Assistant … select “Copy Disk Quickly” (which only copies used data, not the sectors)

5

I’ve only used Acronis True Image in the past for cloning, but Aomei Partition Assistant sounds like it would work regardless of the sector size and I’ll give that a try. I did order the WD Blue Hybrid drives so I’ll see what sector size they are next week. They seem to spin at the Green drive rate of 5400, so I’m hoping that will mean they’ll also run cooler than the red or black drives. I’ve never had speed problems using the Green drives, so the hybrid drives seem like a good alternative.

Thanks much for the info, especially about Aomei.