I think the GParted Live CD will do what Ghost does, for free.
You should be able to put the new drive in a USB to SATA enclosure and clone the old drive on the new.
Gary Udstrand wrote:
Really two questions here. First, I have a new laptop which came with a 160G drive. Since I cannot add a second drive I am planning on replacing it with a larger (hopefully faster) drive. The Seagate Momentus 320G/7200RPM would give me the space I need and it appears to be a very fast drive. The Hitachi and WD Scorpio also get decent reviews, any of these head shoulders above the others or are they all about the same? Secondly, I would like to avoid re-installing all my apps (again) and moving data. What is the best way to clone my current drive to the new drive? xcopy? Ghost? Free alternatives? I would like to be able to clone the drive, and then simply pop it into the laptop and have it boot up and be ready to go. :-) Oh, and I am running Windows XP Pro if it makes any difference. Thanks!