Need help with replacing hard drive

[Barsam]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200, running XP SP2. It has a 40GB HD, but it's almost full. Recently I bought a 160GB HD with a USB 2.0 external box, and got it running. Now, I would like to copy everything (I mean everything) on the C drive to the external drive, make the external drive bootable and mount it internally, replacing the old C drive. How do I do it?
Thanks

 

[Liquidlen]

Are you talking about removing the 160 out of it's USB case and connecting it to the IDE channel inside the CPU case ?
Then it should work as long as you can get the correct parameters off of the HDD.
You will have to install it first and use a drive copy software to copy the 40 on to it.Don't forget XP's dis taste for hardware changes.
I would just do a fresh install and then use Windows file retrieve software to copy off of the the old drive.

 

[Barsam]

Yes, I will take the 160 GB drive out of its case and mount it internally. I thought it would be simpler to copy everything first, then install. I really don't want to do a fresh install. Would it be simplr to mount the 160 GB drive first as a slave?

 

[Liquidlen]

If you install the O/S by copying the old drive it will mess up the drive letters, etc.
A drive copy type of software is the next best to a clean install.

 

[Barsam]

Thanks for your help.