I'm new to computers and as you can tell by my name I have a Compaq. It's my first computer and it cost me about $500.

Presario S6000Z
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 333FSB
960MB Kingston ValueRAM (2x512 PC2700 upgraded from 1x128)
80GB Samsung hard drive (the main partition is actually about 65GB)
Onboard video using 64mb from the RAM (that's why my RAM is 960MB)
USB2.0 and FireWire
IO Magic Dual Format 8X DVDRW with 7-in-1 card reader (black faceplate as opposed to the white one of my Emprex combo drive)
Emprex 52x24x52x16x combo drive and built in 7-in-1 card reader
Windows XP Home
The mobo says A78VX-LA

I bought a Western Digital 200GB hard drive that I want to add, but I was told I can't just plug it in and then turn on the computer. What I wanted to do was copy and paste the contents of my 80GB to the new 200GB but my computer saavy friend just laughed and said it's more complicated than that. He said I need to buy Norton Ghost.

If you have drive space in your computer housing, just run your new HD as the slave drive. Use your existing one as the master drive. That way, you'll have both HDs running and still have access to everything as before. No need to copy anything (unless you want to).

Just remember to format your new HD before using it if you haven't done so already.

You will need to initiate the drive in disk management first otherwise you will not see it in My Computer. You should see two colums one with disk numbers "Disk 1/2/0", you should click on the disk number of your new drive then right click and choose the initiate option. Once that is done then you can format the drive. I have just had to install a 160Gb hdd as I needed more storage.

If you are talking about moving the operating system and progs to the new drive, then yes it is more complicated than just copy and pasting it over, if you are just talking about moving data then nope copy and paste is fine. I am sure someone with more knowledge will tell you how to do that as it is something I have never done.

Compaq; I have had very goog success with Casper XP. Very user friendly and costs less than Norton Ghost. I have both programs but prefer to use the Casper XP. You can take a look at it here: http://www.fssdev.com/products/casperxp/
Regards; Pop's

scroll down to INTERNAL DRIVES. these instructions most likely came with your new HD as well.

http://support.wdc.com/techinfo/installation.asp

as far as the software part, there are instructions here too.

since your machine will probably be out of commission while you do the installation, i'd suggest PRINTING OUT THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST.