Windows 10: How can I make my new 4TB hard drive replace my computers bootable primary “c” drive

I removed my hard drive from my computer and installed a larger one. When I turned on my computer assuming I would need to restart from my recovery flash drive the computer booted up like normal and still shows my full old hard drive even though I have it out of the computer and sitting right next to me in a box! My new hard drive also shows up and is showing as empty. Basically, I have one hard drive physically installed in my computer but the system is showing that I have 2. I want to make my new hard drive my primary “c: drive.” What am I doing wrong?

:)

 

New primary drive

Most new retail hard drives include software and instructions for moving the entire contents of your old hard drive to the new hard drive. You can also find the instructions on the hard drive manufacturer's website, and their technical support will help
you because this is the most common reason for buying a new hard drive.

In a nutshell, you will be backing up your hard drive and restoring it to the new hard drive. The type of backup you will make is called an image, which includes everything on the drive. Essentially, your computer goes to sleep on one drive and
wakes up on another drive. Everything is exactly the same, only on a new hard drive.

A hard drive is not primary - a partition is primary. A primary partition is a type of partition that can hold a bootable operating system. The term only applies to the older Master Boot Record method of organizing a hard drive. For the newer GUID Partition
Table method, every partition is a primary partition, so the term loses its meaning.

 

New 4TB drive install..

Here's the link Bootable Partition Manger | MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition and use Rufus - Create bootable USB to create a bootable USB.

1. Boot up from the USB. A screen similar to this will display.
   
   
   
2. Right click on C-Drive and select Move/Resize. Click at the end of C-Drive and drag to the left until you get C-Drive to the size you want, For Example: 200GB. Click OK
   
   
   
   
   NOTE: For 200GB, the hi-lite text field should be: 1024 * 200 = 204800
3. Move the mouse to the top left and click Apply to commit the change
4. When done. Reboot Windows.

 

New 4TB Hard Drive Read As 1.6TB

The 4TB drive only shows 1.6TB, there always are two reasons for that:

1.The 4TB hard drive has been initialized to a wrong partition table. If you find a formatted hard drive not showing full capacity, which is mainly because you format the
4TB hard drive to MBR partition table. As we all know, MBR partition table cannot address to the space that exceeds 2TB. As a result, to use a full capacity of a hard drive that is larger than 2TB, you need to initialize it to GPT partition table
via
an MBR to GPT converter.

2.The 4TB external hard drive does not connect correctly. Some portable hard drive and USB hard drive are designed to connect a PC via a USB port. If you install the USB hard drive to your computer, the hard drive capacity detecting may
become an issue. An accepted explanation is the controller board of USB hard drive breaks the 2TB limitation, yet Windows internal device controller does not. Therefore, you need to additional hardware to make the installed USB/portable hard drive showing
full capacity. In that case, all you need to do is connecting the 4TB USB hard drive via USB port.