hdd ide to sata; which way to go

[betty]

This is the last forum for my research on this project, everyone's 
advice here has always been most helpful. Although i haven't needed too 
much advice lately (since linux is sooo stable !)

I have an old pentium 3 with ide  hdd that i have been using for many 
years. It is a little slow (to say the least) especially running 
multiple apps.
I was just given a dell optiplex mini form factor w/pentium 4 and sata 
drive connectors. (*no hdd*).
It looks like there are two options here;

 i can get ide to sata connectors and use my old drive so nothing really 
changes and it seems easy, however the hdd is old (maybe 10 years) so i 
risk eventual hardware failure.
or
i can get a sata drive and copy everything to it. seems best way to me. 
not that much more expensive. will last longer  etc.

question: if i go for option two, is there a way to copy (like mirror) 
my old drive stuff to the new one so it works and looks the same to 
me???, if so how do i do that? (the old computer does not have a working 
cdrw)
or do i need to do a new install and copy my files over :(

thanks for your patience and help in advance.

-- 
betty i.
www.webcanine.com
information for people 
who care for dogs.