Disk cloning - Can I select partitions?

[fordy_rounds]

I'm considering adding an SSD to my old laptop (which currently has a 500GB 5400RPM spinner). However, because drive sizes are weird, there's a possibility that I could get a 480GB SSD (though it's still up in the air, as it'll probably be a month or two before I buy). Which leads to my question:

If I clone (so that I don't have to reinstall a few years' worth of various software), can I select certain partitions to clone, and leave others on the spinner? I have 3 major partitions (plus the little system partitions that Windows creates, and a swap partition for Linux): one for Windows, one for Linux, and one that is a shared storage partition. I'm thinking I'd clone the OS partitions, but leave the storage (and once I've verified the clone, expand the storage to take the whole HDD). Is this doable? Would it be ok that the target drive is smaller than the source, since I wouldn't be cloning the entire source? And what software would be best for doing this?

[Electronics Wizardy]

This depends on the software, but normally you can. Or you can shrink te last partition to make it work fine.

 

If the storage partition is at the end, just delete it, then recreate it later.