Can Partitioned OS be transferred to new HD?

[Toragana]

I have an HP and i'm failry sure the hd is about to die on me. The main problems is that I don't want to lose Windows XP nor do I want to pay HP to ship the discs to me. Is there anyway I can get a new HD, hook it up, and copy the partitioned space (containg XP installer with passcode and all that) to the new hd? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Nodsu]

Many new non-OEM hard drives come with some migration utility to move the contents of your old drive to the new.

Also, any partitioning/cloning software will do what you want.

 

[Toragana]

Other than getting a non-OEM drive, will it make a diffrence on which kind I get (sorry, my computer knowledge is only a tad greater than an average user)? ANy you recommend? Most seem to be IDe or SATA

 

[Nodsu]

All newer and better consumer drives are SATA. Does your computer support it? If yes, go SATA.

The HD recommendations are useless really since any experience anyone may have is usually from drives that are years old and noone knows how bad the current ones are.

Look at the specifications and get a drive with 3 or 5 year warranty. Things you want to look at are seek time (lower = better) and sustained throughput (more = better (you may have trouble finding this, since it is seldom quoted)). Noise level is a factor you might be interested in too.

 

[Toragana]

It's an older computer, so most likely not (if SATA is the newer trend). Even if it isn't SATA though, i can just go ahead and spend a bit more and get an adapter right?