It's easier than the posts above indicate.
First of all, The version of Win XP you already have on the older IDE drive will NOT contain a SATA or AHCI driver to use for booting from such a device. So if you clone without a minor adjustment it won't work. BUT there is an easy solution.
Go into BIOS Setup and look for where you configure the SATA ports. Close by look for a line like SATA Port Mode. Its options probably include things like "IDE (or PATA) Emulation", "Native SATA", "AHCI", and "RAID". Set this to "IDE (or PATA) Emulation" for the port your new SATA unit is connected to. (On some mobos, this makes ALL the SATA ports work this way.) What that does is tell the BIOS to limit slightly what the SATA drive can do so that it behaves just like an older IDE drive that Win XP already knows how to use. The few features that you lose this way are not usually important to many users. This completely "fools" Windows into thinking it is still dealing with an IDE drive it has a driver for, and eliminates any need to re-install Win XP with added external drivers. Remember to SAVE and EXIT from BIOS Setup.
Now, since you are buying a Seagate SATA unit, go to their website. Download their utility package called Disk Wizard, and install it on your current C: drive. Make sure you get the manual file for it and READ that manual, especially the chapter on CLONING. This software appears to be a customized version of Acronis True Image. One customization is that it will only make a clone copy TO a Seagate unit - it does not care what old drive you are abandoning.
Install the new SATA unit in your machine, boot up, and run Disk Wizard. (Note that the new HDD will NOT appear anywhere in My Computer yet because it does not have any Partition on it. Disk Wizard will do that for you.) Make SURE you set the old drive to be the SOURCE, and the new SATA unit to be the DESTINATION. Remember that anything on the Destination drive will be destroyed, so you want it to be the one with nothing on it already. The software will suggest a bunch of settings and ask you for confirmation and an OK to proceed. DO NOT AGREE. You need to make some changes.
In the simpler case of having only one Partition on your old HDD, Disk Wizard likely will propose to make a Partition on the new unit the same size as the old one. But I would bet you intend to have ALL of the new drive in ONE Partition to be the new C: drive. You must use the menu system to make this change. All the other options likely are set correctly. When you are satisfied, THEN you can tell it to proceed.
A slightly more complicated case comes up if there are more that one Partition on the old drive. This often happens if there is a reserved Partition (with no drive letter) that contains a "spare copy" of your OS to be used for restoring it. Or sometimes you yourself have created two or more Partitions. Anyway, in this case Disk Wizard will propose what is called a Proportional Partitioning scheme. It will suggest creating new Partitions on the new unit of sizes proportional to those of the old drive. For example, if your old one had Partitions of 30 GB and 85 GB, it would suggest new ones of 485 GB and 1375 GB. But if that old 30 GB Partition was merely a semi-hidden place to keep a backup copy, it does not need to become huge - it will still hold only what it has now. So you could safely tell it to make the Partitions 40 GB and 1820 GB, or whatever is the max for the second Partition that will become the C: drive. You can make your own choices about the sizes of the two (or more) Partitions to be created on the new SATA unit. Again, other settings probably are correct. When you are satisfied, THEN tell it to make your clone. Using the menu to adjust these Partition sizes at the time the clone is made completely avoids trying to change the sizes afterwards (see below).
You should be aware that making these clones to a large HDD will take a lot of time - many hours - so be patient.
When it's all done I suggest this:
1. Shut down, remove power, and disconnect both power and data cables from your old HDD. You can remove it physically from your case now or later. But keep it out of use for a while. It is a perfect backup of everything up to the cloning process. Close the case and restore power.
2. Boot directly into BIOS Setup and go to where you set the Boot Priority Sequence. The old HDD won't be there. You will have to be sure the new SATA unit is in the sequence where you want it. For example, many people set it to try the optical drive first, then the SATA unit, and nothing else. Again, SAVE and EXIT, and the machine will boot just as it always did. The only difference is your C: drive will now be HUGE!
3. After you have used the system for a while and are convinced all your data was cloned completely, you can decide what to do with that old HDD. You no longer need it as a backup.
A last note of explanation. If you don't use the menus to set Partition sizes yourself and just let it do the default thing, you end up with a whole lot of Unallocated Space on the HDD. Now, Windows can Expand a Partition into Unallocated Space that follows that Partition, BUT it will NOT do this for the C: Partition that contains your OS! This is one Windows limit designed to prevent you from accidentally lousing up the OS already installed. That job CAN be done with third-party tools, but having it done for you by the cloning software at the very beginning (with a little planning) is much easier.
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