Hard drive upgrade + XP installation

Hello all -

In the past I successfully re-installed Win XP on my laptop, using this guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=88032

I would like to upgrade my hard drive to a larger one. What is the process to do that?

Do I just swap the drives, insert the OS CD, start the computer and press F12? Or is there something else?

 

thats it! just swap the drive, then follow the guide again...

 

What the guy said above works... easy way... but you could also purchase acronis and make a backup of the drive (or clone, if you can). Depending on how much software you have to reinstall, it may be worth the $30. I save maybe 8 hours of work by not having to reinstall all my programs (along with updates) and doing the setups on those programs....

I replaced my HD and it is dead simple... it is so simple... I was surprised there was not a "catch" to it....

 

swapping hard drives on the m1330 is one of the easiest things iv ever done

same with upgrading its memory

 

I have an Inspiron 1720. Replaced the original 120GB drive with a 200GB 7200 RPM SATA HD.

@ first I tried a new installation of windows, but Vista would hang @ the installing devices for @ least 1 hour (Did this twice), so I gave up.

I started vista with the old drive, installed acronis, connected the 200GB as an external drive, cloned the 120GB drive.

Switched drives, but Vista wouldn't start. Good thing is that Vista has an awesome BOOT repair utility when launched from the DVD.

It fixed it and then I was able to boot from the newly cloned 200GB drive.

Didn't have to install applications or adjust personal settings. Took about 2 hours or less.

Go Acronis!

 

Thanks for the idea, but I anyway want to start over, my drive is full of garbage.

Thanks everyone!

 

Actually cloning the hard drives should usually be avoided when you are upgrading your hard drive to a larger capacity because there have been many reported incidents of your hard drive space getting reduced like if you upgrade a 120 GB to a 200 GB and you use the cloned image of the 120 GB to restore the image to a 200 GB then the hard drive space itself gets reduced to 120 GB alone and the remaining 80 GB is not at all visible no matter what partitioning tools you use....

 

Not sure what tool causes that but I have never had a problem with Acronis True Image. It automatically resizes the partitions as it does the restore.