Cloning an entire disk to a smaller disk

[ema21del9]

So I was just being curious and wondering if you need to clone let's suppose a 1TB disk into a 500GB one, having in mind that only 200GB are used. Will there be any issue? what tool should I use for this (free software preferred).

Thanks

 

[JaredDM]

It can certainly be done, you'll just need to shrink your partition size down first in disk management or using a partition program. Otherwise it'll give you issues as the partition boundary will extend beyond the end of the disk.

Now if you're going to an SSD, there are other factors to consider such as the 4K sector alignment. In a case like that you'd want to actually use an SSD migration tool such as Paragon SSD migration tool.

 

[ArtPog]

You really don't have to be concerned with the present partition size of your 1 TB HDD. As long as the total data contents on that "source" disk are less than the disk-space capacity of the "destination" disk, i.e., your 500 GB disk, which they are, since you're dealing with only 200 GB of data, there will be no problem.

Two of the more popular "freebie" disk-cloning programs are...
EaseUS Todo Backup Free program
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm

Macrium Reflect
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

In the event the disk-cloning program creates a partition on the destination disk only to the extent of the cloned total data contents (as some disk-cloning programs do), it's a simple matter for you to use Disk Management to extend the partition so that it will encompass the total disk-space capacity of the 500 GB destination disk (assuming that's your intention).