Clone and Replace XP drive with SSD or Hybrid?

[kennyschiff]

I need to replace the hard drive of my mother-in-law's T61 running XP. For a variety of reasons wiping and reinstalling is not an option, so I need to come up with a solution that will allow me to clone the drive. I am very comfortable using Gparted or Clonezilla, also have Macrium Reflect on the machine. I also have an external enclosure for the transfer.

1) Am wondering whether doing this to an SSD is an option or whether I will have alignment issues with XP?

2) am also considering getting her a hybrid drive (spinning + SSD). She only needs about 200GB of space.

Also, am wondering if I would have an issue putting a "thin" 2.5" drive in the machine like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Laptop-So ... hard+drive

[ZaZ]

I'm guessing alignment will be an issue.

7mm drives should work fine.