(S) How to Use Foxclone to Clone HDD Partitions

[Alvin]

I wonder if a partiton on my system's HDD can be cloned using Foxclone.
My system is LM21 installed on the HDD of my old HP Compaq Elite 8300 SFF Desktop.
After I disable ubuntu on my EIF boot order, so that I can boot from the Foxclone memory-stick rather than the HDD, I activate Foxclone.
I find a tab that allows me to select the partition that I want to clone when I am in the backup operation but not when I am in the clone operation.
For that reason, I don't think I may use Foxclone to clone just a parttition rather than the entire HDD. Am I right?

Cloning the entire HDD does not allow me to go from a 500GB HDD to a smaller storage capacity. That is why I wish only to clone a partition. My entire LM21 system, including my personal files, occupies only 60GB. I have it on my HDD\s second partition, sda2. I use the remaining 440GB as a memory-stick. It appears as sda3 on GParted.

I have look briefly at Clonezilla, but its intructions seem complicated to me. Is there other software I can use with my system to clone not the entire HDD but just one partition, which would be small enough to clone to a memory stick?
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Some while later: I found a terminal command "dd" that seems to be the easy answer to my quest on Google. The command is in my LM21 system. I'll try it soon and post the result.
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Some while later: I tried to use "dd" command to clone a partition from my HDD to a memory stick. The command will not, it seems, be used in hat way.. So, I am back to my original question:

Is there software I can use with my system to clone not the entire HDD but just one or two partitions from it to a memory stick?

[kato181]

You can select partitions according to the manual which it guides you through step by step.
You can get the manual here..
https://www.foxclone.com/download.php

[AndyMH]

Foxclone will only clone an entire disk and if you are moving from a larger to smaller drive you need to shrink the last partition on the source drive so it will fit on the destination. Trying to squeeze a larger drive onto a smaller drive automatically fell into the 'too difficult' category with a lot of additional code required which is why I didn't do it.

A better solution maybe gparted, this allows you to copy partitions. You will need to copy your mint partition and your EFI partition (without this it will not boot). Note I've never done this.

Yes you can use dd, but you must make sure you get the source and target correct, it is very easy to overwrite your system drive if you get it wrong. This is why the alternative name for dd is disk destroyer.

[Alvin]

AndyMH-
Thank you! Your reply was the most helpful. I did not know that gparted enables the copying of partitions.

On another website, the "stack" websites, such as "mathstack", if a question is posed and receives several answers the best answer can be marked. I think that would be a good idea for LM Forums.

[Alvin]

I have not found that Gparted makes possible the copying of partitions on HDDs to other drives - USB sticks, for example - as one respondent suggests.

[AndyMH]

gparted does allow copy/paste of partitions, just had a look.

[Alvin]

AndyMH: I have doubted that Gparted allows the copy/paste of partitions; only that I do not find that possible when the subject partition is on the system's HDD.

[sanmig]

Alvin, I may not understand what you mean, but:
GParted can copy partition(s) from internal HDD to external (USB) drive.
The source partition must be unmounted (“on” the system’s HDD is OK, but not the booted OS of course).
The target must be an “unallocated” space, it is not possible to shrink during the copy operation, only to move or enlarge.
After selecting source and target one must “Apply All Operations” (in my dark theme the icon is nearly invisible, check with the “Edit” menu).

And: Wait until “All operations successfully completed”, the operation_UI is confusing.
To boot such a copied partition is a different story