recommended replacement drive utilities (WinXP)

[expatCanuck]

Greetings.

I'd like to replace my (almost full) 80GB hard drive with a larger unit, say 160GB.
It's a dual-boot system with Win2K and WinXP (tho' ultimately I'd like to add Linux).

A few questions:

1) What's the easiest way to make the transition? I'd really rather not have to reinstall the OS's and programs.

Is there any OSS/freeware or cost-effective shareware or software (well under $50) that minimizes the angst?
(I know about Ghost ($70), CasperXP and TrueImage (both $50). And from what I've read, XXCopy will only create a bootable disk for Win95 and WinMe.)

2) If I wanted to implement RAID 1 (mirroring), can this be done retroactively? (i.e. - add a second identical SATA drive after the migration is complete -- if it matters, the board's an old Gigabyte GA-7N400S, which supports both paired IDE (what's currently in place) or SATA (what I plan to buy) mirroring).

3) As far as the dual-boot goes, would I be making things appreciably more difficult if I didn't install Linux first?

Thanks kindly for any & all help.

- Richard

 

[akhilles]

1) Scratch that. Seagate & WD both offer free migration tools that copy the old hdd to the new hdd. I've tried them. They work.

2) no idea.

3) I don't think it matters very much since modern distros have good boot managers & partitioners. I would def. back up the Windows, at least the personal files.