Moving OS to another disk and backing up

Question

I have the 320GB hard drive the computer came with (8MB cache) and 3- 500GB drives with 16MB cache.
I assume the 320 is slower and wanting to copy the OS to another internal hard drive, remove the disk and replace with a larger hard drive.
If I make a copy and save to an internal drive, install the new hard drive, I assume I install Snow on the new hard drive and then use something to access the backup and copy all my settings, email, ITunes, IPhoto, etc OR do I install the original OSX and then the Snow upgrade?
What do I use to move all the information and settings to the new drive?

Answer 1

Before you get befuddled here's the easy way. Install one of the three new drives. Prep the drive as follows:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
7. Select your current startup drive from the DU sidebar menu and then click on the Restore option in the DU main menu.
8. Drag the startup volume to the Source field.
9. Drag the newly installed volume to the Destination field.
10. Check the box to "Erase destination first" then click on the Restore option.
Go away for a while because it could take hours for the cloning to finish depending upon how full your old drive was.
When the clone has completed open Startup Disk preferences and select the icon for the new clone and click on the Restart button. You should now boot from the new drive. Assuming all went well you may remove the old drive or leave it installed. Install the other two new drives. Be sure to prep them using the procedure outlined earlier.
If you no longer plan to use the old drive you can remove it. If you plan to keep it for other uses, then use Disk Utility to erase it. It it were me I would rename the old drive and leave it as a second boot drive in case of an emergency.