Thank you very much to all who replied to my question - I have got some good 
advice - the only problem is I have just discovered that the Dell hard drive 
is different to other laptop drives and does not seem to fit in my hard 
drive dock!
Oh well, it seemed like a good idea!
Thanks again,
John.

--------------------------------------------------
From: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 07, 2010 8:47 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Changing a hard drive

> Yes. You need a drive imaging program like Acronis, or Drive Image XML:
> http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [PCBUILD] Changing a hard drive
> From: John Clemence <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Sun, February 07, 2010 10:41 am
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Hi,
> I have just been preparing my old Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop to give to
> my daughter.
> I have formated and re-installed XP prof o/s, upgraded with service
> packs 2 & 3 and put on lots of other programmes.
> I now realise that the existing hard drive might be a little small. I am
> consequentally wondering if I have to go through all this again if I put
> a larger hard drive in? Is there any way I could make a copy of the hard
> drive by putting it in a USB h / d dock and then replacing the existing
> drive with the copy?
> I would appreciate any thoughts on this.
> Thank you.
> Regards,
> John.
>
> The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website,
> web based bulletinboard for questions and answers:
> Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com
>
>        The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website,
>           web based bulletinboard for questions and answers:
>              Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com 

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml