There are 2 reasons that you would clone a hard drive.

1)  It is an exact backup copy of your hard drive.  If the main drive crashes, you can be back up in running in a few minutes.
2)  You are upgrading your hard drive and do NOT want to install the OS and programs again.  This is an easy and quick way to get up and running with the new hard drive.

Do you have to do this.  NO.  You can install a fresh copy of your OS.  As for drivers, you can get the most up to date Dell related drivers by clicking on the "Downloads" tab above.  Then just follow the instructions.

 

sakor1, i just got the new hitachi 7200 in my i8500 today, the difference is amazing.  you will not be dissapointed if you do this, there is no other upgrade that will increase performance as much.  i got mine online at www.mwave.com i think it was, and it cost  245 total including 2day shipping and tax.  as far as im concerned, the only way for you to go is to break down and buy the external usb hard drive casing, i bought an apricorn for 75$ including overnight, includes everything you need to copy your existing hd onto your new hd, then put the new hd in the 8500 and use you 4200 as a pretty fast external hd.  the software made the process incredibly simple.  it will be much easier than getting the media bay drive imo because its easier than getting one of those hd carrier's through dell, only about 40 dollars more, and it will be easier to use in the future, better than taking your dvd drive out.  with the amount of ram you have, your system will FLY.  faster than most desktops. 

Thanks guys, very helpful!

Definately decided that I want to get it, but  www.mwave.com doesn't ship internationally (I live in Australia).... anyone know a site that will ship this Hard Drive internationally? Or an Aussie site? I don't wanna order from Dell unless I have too as I'll pay through the nose going through them. Thanks!

I just finished installing my new 7k60 and I'd like to reiterate what was posted earlier about transfering the contents of the old drive onto the new one.  I spent the entire afternoon yesterday attempting to use the backup and restore process and cloning and booting onto an external HD with no success.  After 5 reformats and windows installations followed by an unbootable hard drive, I broke down and performed the installation of all my programs from sctrach on the 7k60.  Although it now works (and not just work, but flys!) I would  have gotten to sleep and to class on time had I possessed either a media bay caddy or USB caddy for an internal HD.  You said that you wanted to do a clean start - that will certainly work. 

As far as international shipping goes, you may want to type in "hitachi 7k60" at www.pricegrabber.com to explore your purchasing options.  Last time I checked zipzoomfly (formerly googlegear) offered the 7k60 for 232.50 with free 2 day ups shipping.  I'm not sure if they ship internationally, but you should find a list of stores to search through. 

Good luck,

Mike

Here is one Australian seller.  I can't vouch for them personally, but there you go anyway...

Thanks all! Seems its cheaper by about AUD$100 to get it shipped from an overseas site than get it from the Australian site.....

One more question, does anyone know the price to buy this HDD from Dell, either Australian or American? I am sure it will be cheaper from a third party, but I just wanna make sure.

Thanks again

Just stumbled across another thread in the Inspiron Upgrade Hardware forum with an individual who purchased one and had it shipped to Australia.  See the bottom post on the thread.

Thanks heaps!