Replace latop hard drive how-to?

[mumbles]

Gateway SOLO 5350 laptop - windows xp pro - want to replace 20GB hard
drive with 40 GB hard drive. I have Norton symantec suite - inlcudes
ghost but HAVE NOT donwloaded on either drive yet. what is best
practice? remove old HD, insert new HD, put windows OS on new HD and
then..?.use Norton to bring info on old HD to new HD? I have an IDE to
laptop HD adapter so I can connect the old HD to my laptop via USB. any
help appreciated. In addition I tried to donwload windows XP with the
CD that came with my laptop and it asks me for my administrator
password which I don't remember...advice?

 

[Unk]

Gateway SOLO 5350 laptop - windows xp pro - want to replace 20GB hard
drive with 40 GB hard drive. I have Norton symantec suite - inlcudes
ghost but HAVE NOT donwloaded on either drive yet. what is best
practice? remove old HD, insert new HD, put windows OS on new HD and
then..?.use Norton to bring info on old HD to new HD? I have an IDE to
laptop HD adapter so I can connect the old HD to my laptop via USB. any
help appreciated. In addition I tried to donwload windows XP with the
CD that came with my laptop and it asks me for my administrator
password which I don't remember...advice?

Guide to Norton Ghost
http://ghost.radified.com/

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Gateway SOLO 5350 laptop - windows xp pro - want to replace 20GB hard
drive with 40 GB hard drive. I have Norton symantec suite - inlcudes
ghost but HAVE NOT donwloaded on either drive yet. what is best
practice? remove old HD, insert new HD, put windows OS on new HD and
then..?.use Norton to bring info on old HD to new HD? I have an IDE to
laptop HD adapter so I can connect the old HD to my laptop via USB. any
help appreciated. In addition I tried to donwload windows XP with the
CD that came with my laptop and it asks me for my administrator
password which I don't remember...advice?

If you have an IDE to 2.5" adapter then this is quite easy:
1. Connect the old laptop disk to your desktop PC.
2. Launch WinXP on the desktop.
3. Run this command from a Command Prompt:
xcopy /s /e /o /c /y /d e:\*.* c:\Laptop\
where e:\ is the laptop drive and c: is the desktop hard
disk with sufficient space for the laptop disk.
4. Connect the new laptop disk to your desktop PC.
5. Partition & format it.
6. Run this command from a Command Prompt:
xcopy /s /e /o /c /y /d c:\Laptop e:\
7. Put the new disk into the laptop.
End of story!