Probably a stupid question: windows xp transfer?

This is probably a dumb question but I was unsure of the answer so I figured, why not.

If I buy a new HDD for my laptop can I transfer windows XP on to the new HDD? I don't really want to spend money on a new OS. Is this at all possible?

You definitely can using a program called Norton Ghost (http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost10) which costs $69.99 and is downloadable from their site. It can also be used for scheduled backups and more. Also, this question is definitely not stupid. It's a very legitimate question many users wonder when they buy a new hard drive.

You can install the new drive as a slave drive. You then boot up and start up Ghost. Ghost gives you the option to copy your install over to a new drive. It basically replicates one drive to another. Once that process is finished, you can remove your older drive and make your new drive the master drive. Boot back up and it'll be as if your new drive was your older drive.

You can also do a fresh install if you don't want to buy Ghost and have the install CD. At worst you will have to call MS and explain you did an upgrade, and need to activate Windows on the same PC.

Harddrives come with software for doing this. There is no need to buy ghost just to move your OS onto your new drive.

The only problem you might have is if you can not put both drives in your laptop at the same time. Then you might want to do a fresh install onto the new drive and/or get an external USB enlosure for the old drive. Or get ghost and make an image then restore the image to the new drive.

Well I think rather then wasting the old drive I'll get the external enclosure. THat way I solve my problem and get 100 gigs of storage on the side. Thanks for all the different options guys, this has been a big help for me. =D