Jeff,
Good morning/afternoon
I think Terry is out picture taking today, but I believe we of the same mind on this issue.
I have tried many backup programs in the past; from Digital tape, Drive Image, Ghost, about everything I could find.
I have made hard drive backups on Cds DVDs tape and even floppies years ago.
As you can tell, I advocate image backups.
I found Acronis True Image Home to be the most reliable backup software I have ever used (by far) and I have been using it (and buying upgrades) for about 6 years.

There are essentially two choices for me. I can make a backup image file, or I can make a clone copy.

The software has many options for other such as backup incremental, and on the fly, etc.
I found, for my needs, backup image files are for me.
An image file is a single file backup of your hard drive including the partition and which is stored on a different Hard Drive, in case the C: drive is wearing out.
I install my new HD, slip my RESCUE CD into the CD drive, (You make the RESCUE CD from the program) and reboot.
If the computer BIOS is set up properly, the computer will boot from the CD drive before the C: drive, and you run the RESTORE program which reads and installs your backup image file on the new drive.

I don't use the clone system because that makes the backup drive into a clone of the C: drive, and allows one backed up date to be cloned.
The image backup system that I prefer allows me to make a backup every night, storing about a dozen days of backups.

BTW, retrieving a few individual files is a snap too. If I accidentally deleted a picture or a folder, I can retrieve just that from any one of my backups in the blink of an eye.

So bottom line, I would get a copy of Acronis True Image Home, make a backup of the current C: drive before it dies, replace the drive, and restore the saved image back onto the new drive.

An interesting side note. They offer, and I bought it, an extra program which adds to the True Image that proclaims to be able to use an image backup and restore it to (almost) any new computer even if the configuration is different.
That was never an option before.

Haven't tried it, but software people never lie!!

This image backup system that I favor also is a safety net for any contracted viruses or worms.
Simply restore from a backup that you deem virus free from the days of saved backups, and you are healthy again.

I back up about 80 gigs (64 bit W7 Quad core) in about 10 minutes. So I don't find it tedious. I start the backup and go for my ice cream and cookies in the kitchen.

You will likely get other suggestions, and hear them out. Likely some better and easier than my solution.

Fred

Jeff

I think you will be better off doing a clean install using the recovery CD on your new disc, rather than cloning your current system onto it. If you clone, as you say you will simply be copying the gunge, and you will never really clean it up properly. You will have to re-install the programs, but again this is not a bad thing.
I recently did this using an Intel 80gig SSD, and it was the most effective upgrade I've ever done. I kept the old C: drive as a second data disc (I already had one) and I can boot to it by changing the Bios if I need it (I haven't). The SSD is no faster than a spinning disc at large file transfer, what it does is open lots of small files much much faster. This means your programs open faster, and the speed of programs like Lightroom which use lots of thumbnails and sidecar files is amazing. There is no difference in things like Photoshop processing or QImage printing, but Windows Mail is much quicker.
There are no problems using a recovery CD - I did this several times when I was working and it's pretty stress-free.
If you use Photoshop, don't forget to de-activate it first.

The Intel SSD - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/175723


HTH

Brian

Thanks to all for comments.

I have googled SSD's and get the impression it is not advisable to use SSD on other than Win 7, something to do with limiting the number of times the SSD is written too.

So think I will continue with standard SATA's until SSD's have had further development and price drops.

Will get a disk and jump in both feet.

Thanks again

Jeff