Windows 10: Clone only Used Space on 2TB HDD to 500 GB SSD

I've literally run into problems in the past back when having a pair of 250gb ide drives filled fast and running smack into loading problems until actually nuking scores of files off of a drive! At the time of course we were all running the 32bit Windows not the 64bit except for the rare XP Pro x64 or when Vista arrived. The paging file and restore points were forgotten about when filling the drives up!

Here I tend to keep drives even storage drives under 70% full while the last two 1tb in were getting there and between those two and a 3rd in an external enclosure the pair of 2tb drives are now over the half way point! The OS drives are 1tb with the 10 drive now seeing 436gb while the 7 drive that's been in use now for a full 5yrs. has 461gb used up. Subtract that from the 920gb approximate drive space available for an empty 1tb drive and I am not doing too bad while it could be better for the spinners!

With SSDs one drawback is the amount of times a drive can be written to like about 3000 writes or so they say? But people want the performance out of them over the mechanical. But here's a look at the endurance factor one blog brings up. SSD endurance myths and legends articles on StorageSearch.com

Intel and other brands make the claims their drives are good for 5yrs. when writing 20gb daily to a drive. I might consider a 1tb model SSD when it comes time to build a totally new pc once the prices have come down a bit. Until then I get 2tb for only $65 compared to the nearly $1,000 for the 1tb size? When people couldn't figure out why I didn't rush after a 120gb SSD for 7 years back I can answer now that I have OS drives that seem to remain just under 50% full with over 400gb on them! *Wink