Is it possible to clone part of a drive?

[Thollupped]

Hi guys, just a quick question

i'm thinking of buying a 120gb ssd for my windows installation and would then use my 1tb hdd for mass storage of my 200gb+ steam libary and music etc.

is there any way for me to clone just my windows installation to the drive without having made a full backup to another hdd?
also, while i'm on the topic, would i be able to reinstall steam on the hdd and then copy the game files into the steam directory and have it work?

 

[Samat]

I would recommend a fresh install for the SSD. You can clone partitions or whole discs, but not only operating system. Steam is easy, just copy the whole steam folder with games and all whereever you want. When you run the Steam exe from that folder on a freshly installed system it will automatically reinstall any files needed. Some games that need it will reinstall aswell on first startup (no download needed though). Just remember to backup any savegames (usually in My Documents folder).

 

[Thollupped]

Thanks a lot, if a fresh install is what's best then I think I'll wait for windows 9!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, Thollupped!

I did some detailed research hoping to find a possible way for you to make this happen but unfortunately, there is none.
The best thing you can do is clean install on the SSD as @Samat suggested.
However, if you insist on cloning, you will need another media device for backup of all other data.
You also have the option to migrate your OS to the SSD.
Both cloning and migrating can be accomplish with the appropriate Acronis software: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/

If you are moving your Steam installation to the SSD and want to keep game saves/profiles for third party games that are not saved on Steam Cloud most of these can be found in your Documents folder: ~\Documents\[username]\My Games\. Moving this folder to the same location on the new drive will maintain your saves/profiles. So it should work.

Hope this helps.

 

[Thollupped]

Hey there, Thollupped!

I did some detailed research hoping to find a possible way for you to make this happen but unfortunately, there is none.
The best thing you can do is clean install on the SSD as @Samat suggested.
However, if you insist on cloning, you will need another media device for backup of all other data.
You also have the option to migrate your OS to the SSD.
Both cloning and migrating can be accomplish with the appropriate Acronis software: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/

If you are moving your Steam installation to the SSD and want to keep game saves/profiles for third party games that are not saved on Steam Cloud most of these can be found in your Documents folder: ~\Documents\[username]\My Games\. Moving this folder to the same location on the new drive will maintain your saves/profiles. So it should work.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot, really helpful information. I don't have many games that have local saves, but will check before i do anything further!