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You can "chain" the old and new drives together, then transfer the full contents of the old drive to the new (very quickly). Afterwards, discard the old drive. Your computer, in this way, can have the same look and feel you're used to.
I've done this many times. The only down side is if there's something you don't like about your current setup, such as an annoying glitch or something you've never been able to get rid of, it too will copy over using this method.
If you want to "freshen" your operating system, then just load a fresh copy of the operating system, install your old programs to the new drive, then just copy your old data back to the new drive. This option is the most work, but everything will run like new. The other downside is you will have to tweak the settings in each piece of software to get the programs to function as you like. Lots of work, but over time you can get things back to "normal".
Let me know if you need help chaining the two drives together to do the transfer. Basically, you make one drive the "master" and the other the "slave" using jumpers on the drive. You will need a ribbon cable that has two drive connectors. No big deal, your computer may already be using this type of cable. A few more settings need to be changed in the BIOS setup to get the computer to recognize the new drive...easy to do.
Outside of this, ZDTV (ZDnet) recommends software called "Aloha Bobs..." as their top choice for this type of task. But, still, I think it's about $50.
Good luck. Will help if you need it...
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