Using Norton Ghost to clone a drive

Hi there. Does anyone know if it is possible to clone a large drive onto a smaller one by just transfering the used part of the disc?
I have a 1 Tb drive with about 39.5Gb used and want to clone just this part, which includes the OS, and main programmes.
Everything I have read so far refers to cloning onto a larger drive, like an upgrade. But, Ive suffered a number of crashes, largely down to software conflicts, and want to avoid having to spend hours re-formatting and re-installing my basic setup.
Maybe I’m looking at the wrong method of guaranteeing easy restoration of a crashed drive?
Thanks, Les G