Please help: upgrading old HD (IDE)

Thanks in advance to anyone who's able to help me out.
I'm a professor who doesn't have intense computing needs other than Powerpoint, word processing, web use, and some light video editing. I had wanted to replace my HP DV1000 (CTO) but money is tight right now, so instead I'd like to upgrade the hard drive as a temporary fix. (I already have 2gb of RAM, which I believe is the max for this type of computer.) The old HD is an 80gb, 4200rpm job and it's fairly slow. After reading a lot of reviews, and old threads on this forum, I bought a Western Digital 320gb IDE hard drive (WD3200BEVE). I'm intending to clone my old hard drive (which has around 70gb occupied) and then import it to the new one.

So here are my questions:
1.) Are there any reliable, free cloning programs that you recommend? I have read some good things about Macrium Reflect free edition. If I have to pay for something I'll do it, but for obvious reasons I would rather use a free program.

2.) My DV1000 CD/DVD burner hasn't been working well for a long time. I've heard that a lot of old HP laptops have similar problems. Am I screwed if I can't burn a boot disc from my existing laptop? Will I not be able to get the new WD hard drive to boot up without one? Is there any other way to make one besides making it on my existing laptop?

I will appreciate any guidance you can throw my way.

 

1) You can use Acronis True Image. It's free for like 30 days and it's never failed a clone on me (unlike some other truly free solutions).

http://download.cnet.com/Acronis-True-Image-Home/3000-2242_4-10168093.html

2) If you use said program, you don't need an optical drive for it to work.