XPS 8930, 4TB NVMe upgrade, BSOD Stop Code

@Vic384 is spot on with that advice.

Can I assume that with the smaller drive installed the system works properly? If the only change you made is to a larger SSD and the problems started then, it is possible that the new drive is defective. Have you tried the larger drive in another system?

Also try this approach. Download Disk Genius available here. Create a bootable USB flashdrive, the option is in the menu of DG, and erase the sectors on the larger drive. That will wipe the drive clean prior to a clean install and if there are any problems with the drive it will show up during the wipe process. Be patient as a wipe can be a bit time consuming though usually not bad with an NVMe SSD.

---

@TAZ1962 wrote:

I have an XPS 8930 with a 2 tb nvme ssd that I have been trying to upgrade to a 4 tb nvme. I have been attempting this for almost 1 month now. Sorting through a mountain of forums, communities, several versions of cloning software and tech support but still have yet to solve this problem.

---

There's not a lot mentioned on your process that you were trying . Did you clone the 2TB NVMe to a SATA SSD and then try to clone back from the SSD to the newly installed 4TB NVMe?  Or did you image the 2TB NVMe to an external SSD and then prepare a flash drive with Macrium Reflect recovery media ?

If the latter, you'd just swap the old NVMe with the new NVMe drive then boot the system from Macrium Reflect recovery flash drive (F12 at powerup) and you should've been able to restore the image to the new drive.

Kernel Security Check Failure / Kernel_Security_Check_Failure indicates what error is happening with windows subsystem, but for clean install you're supposed to boot from USB media first (not your internal storage) e.g. using F12 key on computer startup and follow installation steps (with clearing partitions on destination/new 4TB drive, which obviously will wipe all data there if any).
If you're absolutely sure what this error is happening on a boot media - then it it possible something is wrong with USB file structure, perhaps it's worth rebuilding it using Windows Media Creation tool via this Microsoft link ("Create Windows 11 Installation Media" section):
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

It's safer if you do it with other drives (containing data you would like to preserve) disconnected to avoid accidental deletion of a wrong partitions on a different drive(-s).
After Windows install is completed (assuming everything went well) - take out your USB media and make sure system boots correctly. Install drivers. Then in BIOS double-check if right drive (UEFI) is selected as primary boot source, turn PC off, reconnect archive drives, turn PC back on.
Now theoretically Windows should boot from correct drive (your NVMe) and archive drives recognized/available for access.
You probably can also clear TPM and disable "Secure Boot" feature in BIOS but after everything is done - reenable it.

If you add your new 4TB M.2 NVMe SSD to a PCIe slot with an adapter you will have 6TB of storage and will not need to concern yourself with cloning. AHCI is still a good recommendation.

First, I must thank everyone that took the time to offer help. I would have taken a sledgehammer to my computer without your advice and insight. What I thought was going to be quick and easy was anything but.

It turns out that Vic384's suggestion of changing to AHCI vs Raid solved the problem. Hat's off to you.

I had returned the WD Black SN850X Gen4 for the SN750 Gen3 and still had the same problem. So, changing to AHCI in the BIOS allowed me to do the clean install of Windows 11. But it took a couple of tries and then finally the installation was initiated, and I was able to move forward.

Again I thank EVERYONE for their help.

Best Regards,

TAZ

It has nothing to do with a SSD working "better" in AHCI/SATA. It's a weird behavior of some (mostly Dell, but some other) systems that they do seem to behave like that with ANY NVMe drive larger than 2TB. Dell will just say that they only support max 2TB drives. 

So it is a problem on the board/bios maker side.

There are some recovery images that Dell had where it would boot, but then it may fail after a Windows update or so.

Had the same issue recently with a Dell XPS 15 9500. It came with a 1TB SSD and the 2nd slot was empty, so I installed a 4TB Toshiba Koxia SSD in there and the moment I did that I kept getting this KERNELY_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE boot loop. What I did was, remove that 2nd SSD temporarily so I could boot into Windows at least, then I updated to a new IRST Driver which was available on the Dell Support site under my laptop's service tag, installed that, then when I added the 2nd SSD it worked!

@Super Spartan​ Best solution worked like a charm, just update IRST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) and it worked. This Link Thanks!!!!!

After reading this thread, I was encouraged to buy a Lexar NM790 SSD 4TB and update the IRST. Unfortunately, that did not work - and also switching from RAID to AHCI. Whatever I try, it will not boot from the SSD. What makes things worse is that I have to remove my graphic card every time I switch the NVMe SSD - and as the XPS 8930 has only a single NVMe slot I have to do this constantly to be able to boot again. Any suggestions - or do I have to give up using a 4TB NVMe SSD in this now hopelessly outdated desktop?

Thanks Tom