Replacing system Hard drive

[Guest]

My current system hard drive has less than 600Mb of space left and I would
like to replace it with a larger sytem hard drive. Is there a way to mirror
or copy the current drive onto a larger drive and then use the new drive as
my system drive, without re-installing all of my software? I am using XP
Professional and have numerous proprietary programs (downloaded, no disk)
which I am not sure I could re-install otherwise.

what would be my best way to go about this?

Thanks

 

[Jerry]

Hard drive manufacturers provide software with their drives that will do
what you want. It should come on a CD in the box witht the drive or, if you
bought a bare drive, can be downloaded from their web site.

 

[Shel]

My current system hard drive has less than 600Mb of space left and I would
like to replace it with a larger sytem hard drive. Is there a way to mirror
or copy the current drive onto a larger drive and then use the new drive as
my system drive, without re-installing all of my software? I am using XP
Professional and have numerous proprietary programs (downloaded, no disk)
which I am not sure I could re-install otherwise.

what would be my best way to go about this?

Thanks

I used Acronis True Image to do this. It worked fine.

 

[Gene K]

Yes you can. Most {and possibly all) major hard disk manufacturers supply
free imaging software plus instructions on how to accomplish such a thing.
Basicly, you install the new drive as a slave THEN image your old drive to
it with their software THEN immediately shutdown and power off then open the
case and change the cable plugs from one to the other. In short, the new
drive then becomes the Master and the old drive becomes a Slave.
Gene K