What's the easiest way to transfer data from an old external disk to a new one?

Hello!
My external hard drive (SimpleTech 250GB) is almost full so I bought a LaCie P'9230 3TB hard drive to take the place of the old one. What is the easiest way to transfer the data from the old one to the new one? Also, any tips on how to format the new drive will be appreciated since I haven't done this in a while.
Thank VERY much!!!
tenntooter

Hello rkaufmann87 and Linc,
Thank you both for your responses. It ended up that it was REALLY easy to set up and use the LaCie drive. The drive came with very simple instructions and a very easy to use setup assistant. Setup took about 2 minutes without ever leaving the assistant to get into Disk Utility, etc. Once the drive was setup I simply dragged the older external drive on top of the LaCie drive and the LaCie copied the data in about a minute.
After backing up the old drive I set Time Machine to use the new LaCie drive and selected the encryption option. It took the LaCie drive about an hour to totally back up my iMac's hard drive and to encrypt it as well.
VERY IMPRESSED with LaCie for sure!!! (As well as continuing to be VERY IMPRESSED with my MAC!!!)
Thanks again!
tenntooter

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