Installing new hard drive with new Windows XP?

[dejola]

I'm going to buy a new 200GB Sata hard drive. I want to remove my existing hard drive with its contents (Win XP, Apps, and data). Then I want to install the new hard drive. Can I put the new hard drive in and simply use my Thinkpad Z61m Recovery DVD to restore to how the Z61m was when I bou8ght it, or do I have to do something to the new hard drive before I can do that?

Thanks.

[ryengineer]

Nope you don't have to do anything special, although a format would be a good recommendation which by the way Recovery disks will perform it for you. Just make sure the HDD option is set to SATA AHCI in the BIOS before performing installation through recovery disks.

I recently bought a 320GB drive from Western Digital, it came with some default cloning and syncing software from factory, I copied them on another computer via an external enclosure just in case if I ever require them in future.

[dejola]

Thanks so much. Sounds like even I may be able to get it done then. My existing drive is a Sata so I won't have to mess with BIOS settings.

Thanks again.