Originally Posted by
martian
Thanks all.
I actually have an external USB drive, but there is a lot of data that I need to sit on the PC. Furthermore, about 30 of my 40 gigs is taken up by software.
So, is it really that simple as to transfer the entire contents of the old drive to a new drive, and then plug the new drive in? and discard the old one? I won't have to reinstall anything? This seems too good to be true.
You're right ... it's too good to be true cos it ain't. Norton Ghost (for example) can do what you need, that is, make a bit-for-bit copy of the old drive onto a new drive.
I suggest you buy a large (in GB, still 2.5" physical size) external USB drive, and use Ghost to copy your existing drive entirely to the new drive. Then pull the new drive out of its enclosure, and install it into the PC. Boot up and you should be good to go.
Benefit: you can put the old drive in the external enclosure and you've got a new external 40GB drive.