My PII computer has a 120 IDE GB Hd and running XP. I just found a 300 IDE GB hard drive and would like to swap them. What is the safest or best way to do this? Thanks

Use cloning software like Acronis or Norton Ghost.  Either that or just install XP on the 300 GB drive and then manually copy your files over from the old one.  Note that you cannot just copy applications over, you will need to reinstall them, and you may lose some configuration settings.

Hi!

 

An easier way or at least cheaper is to download a linux live CD and use "diskdump".

 

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/learn-the-dd-command-362506/

 

Thereafter resize the partition to the bigger size with gparted:

 

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

 

Bye.

Thanks for the replies. looks like I have more reading to do.