Help for newbie cloning old HD to new...

[tmiller676]

I'm an admitted newbie, but a quick learner. I'm replacing the 40 GB SATA WD HD in my Dell Dimension 4700 with a 640 GB WD HD. I've read a lot about cloning for a secondary HD, but not much if you plan to swap it out for the old. I plan on using the trial version of Acronis for the actual cloning.

I read the "Installing A Hard Drive - Step by Step" article, and it was a big help, but I have more questions about the cloning aspect of the process.

Hopefully this question won't embarrass me too much, but rather than burning Acronis to a disc and then booting from that with the new HD installed as the primary drive, can I install the new HD as a slave to the old, run the cloning software through Windows, then shut down, remove the old HD and install the new in its place? (Does that even make sense??)

I'm going off of the info found in this article:
http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=4762
and just assuming that since it works if you're going to use the old HD as a slave, it should work if you are going to toss the old HD all together.

Please, go easy on me!

[EzyStvy]

can I install the new HD as a slave to the old, run the cloning software through Windows, then shut down, remove the old HD and install the new in its place? -> YES. SHould work fine.