Replacing an old HDD...

[Titan_Bigtoe]

right, i have 2 hard drives a 20 gig one with windows installed on it, and a 40 gig one which i use just for data storage and such. I plan on buying myself a 80 gig HDD, now idealy i would like this to replace my 20 gig HDD, the prob being ii dont have a spare copy of windows to put onto this new HDD... so my question is

Is it possible to completley copy one hard drive to another, so when i make the final swap over and boot up the comp with the new 80 gig HDD it will be 100% the same as my old C:/?

Errr... if you get my meaning.

[MobilePCPhysician]

The manufacturer's of the hard drives provide software to copy your old drive to the new. The software is available at their websites.

What brand of hard drive is it?

[Garak]

Failing that, you could try Norton Ghost. err sorry Symantec Ghost as its now called. Personally I would copy the 40 to the 80 then the 20 to the 40. hope you get some useout of this post

[Titan_Bigtoe]

right ok, got my new HDD (i indulged and got myself a 200 gig instead), thats all installed now as a 3rd HDD (replaced my DVD drive till i get everything sorted) - right now all my data is being transfered from my E: to my new F: - if i were to use this Ghost program, will it transfer EVERYTHING 100% from my C: to my new F:... so i can take out my current C: and stick in its slot the F:.??????

[Kermit D. Frog]

ghost makes an exact image of whatever drive you are copying....so yes, you can copy your c: drive to your new f: drive, then pull the the current c: drive and put the f: drive in it's place. It will now become the c: drive and look identical to the old c: drive.

[root]

I think almost all people at least once face the challenge of upgrading PC.
As for me, when I had to transfer all my data from old HDD to bigger one. I just plug the new HDD as slave, use True Image and clone old one onto another, with OS and all apps. It was very easy and convenient due to friendly intuitive windows wizard.
It's really tried method.