Need help with Cloning OS

[owendon]

I want to clone my OS to my SSD however, my SSD has 120GB space and my HDD is full and used 900GB full of games. is there a way to only transfer the OS and not the rest of the files. i cannot clone the whole HDD because my SSD does not have enough space to take all of the files from the HDD

 

[USAFRet]

I want to clone my OS to my SSD however, my SSD has 120GB space and my HDD is full and used 900GB full of games. is there a way to only transfer the OS and not the rest of the files. i cannot clone the whole HDD because my SSD does not have enough space to take all of the files from the HDD

No. You can't clone/migrate "only the OS".
There is no application or functionality to do that.

For a 120GB SSD, the actual consumed space needs to be below 80GB. Which, in your case (full 1tb HDD), is pretty impossible.

Looking like a clean install on this new drive is your way forward.
And I would NOT recommend a 120GB SSD. That's actually pretty small.

 

[owendon]

i really just wanted to avoid having to do a clean install because of how long it takes to install games, Thank you though

 

[USAFRet]

i really just wanted to avoid having to do a clean install because of how long it takes to install games, Thank you though

Steam games, you can probably work around having to download them all again.
We can go into detail on that if you want.

 

[bajgur]

i really just wanted to avoid having to do a clean install because of how long it takes to install games, Thank you though

most games today dont need to be reinstall, just copy/move them and you will be fine.

 

[SkyNetRising]

i really just wanted to avoid having to do a clean install because of how long it takes to install games, Thank you though

There might be a workaround to this problem.
1st - how much is total capacity of your HDD?
2nd - Used space of HDD is 900GB. Right? How much of that is occupied by games folder?

If by removing games folder, used space left is below size of SSD, cloning is still possible. You just need a temporary storage for your games.

• 1. Move games to another drive;
  2. Link games folder to new location (using NFS links);
  3. Clone contents of HDD to SSD (games have been removed from there);
  4. Verify, you can boot from SSD (other drives disconnected);
  5. Clean your OLD HDD and copy games back to it and relink games folder. Temporary storage no longer necessary.

 

[Ron_30]

Not endorsing any product but you may be able to use this for free for 90 days. Clone OS from larger HDD to smaller SSD with EaseUS Todo Backup
Free migrate OS (Windows 10/8/7) to SSD without reinstallation

 

[USAFRet]

Not endorsing any product but you may be able to use this for free for 90 days. Clone OS from larger HDD to smaller SSD with EaseUS Todo Backup
Free migrate OS (Windows 10/8/7) to SSD without reinstallation

There are MANY free cloning tools.
I use Macrium Reflect almost exclusively.

However...900GB of data into a 120GB drive Will Not Work. The physical drive size is (mostly) irrelevant.
No matter what current tool you use.

 

[Ron_30]

Agreed USAFRet. He could use macrium or another software to make a image backup of the system OS only. Then Restore that to the new harddrive and when done set it as boot drive. That is long way around.
Simplest & most efficient way and that makes sure everything works is do a clean install with all drivers.

 

[USAFRet]

Agreed USAFRet. He could use macrium or another software to make a image backup of the system OS only. Then Restore that to the new harddrive and when done set it as boot drive. That is long way around.
Simplest & most efficient way and that makes sure everything works is do a clean install with all drivers.

Macrium can't image 'only the OS'. Not as far as I know.
Doesn't work like that.

 

[Ron_30]

I have used Aoemi backupper . Direct from there site---AOMEI Backupper provides a one-click backup system solution. If you need to do a system backup, it will enable you to back up your system drive completely, including system files,boot files,etc.
System Backup is a kind of backup aiming at imaging system partition and other system related partitions (such as system reserved partition and boot partition), including system files, boot files, data on these partitions.
Direct link as a how to. https://www.backup-utility.com/help/system-restore.html
It is not a full backup.

 

[USAFRet]

I have used Aoemi backupper . Direct from there site---AOMEI Backupper provides a one-click backup system solution. If you need to do a system backup, it will enable you to back up your system drive completely, including system files,boot files,etc.
System Backup is a kind of backup aiming at imaging system partition and other system related partitions (such as system reserved partition and boot partition), including system files, boot files, data on these partitions.
Direct link as a how to. https://www.backup-utility.com/help/system-restore.html
It is not a full backup.

And you've personally used this to image or backup or clone or whatever...."only the OS"?
If so...I'd be interested to see the results of a system done thusly.

They all say mostly the same thing.
Clone/image/whatever.

I've not seen one that can actually split off the OS from everything else.
The Samsung Magician, for instance, gives the option to leave off folder containing doc/music/video.
Other than that...everything goes.