>>> I don't recommend that strategy, unless the old drive is about to die any minute. A clean install will give you top performance, without all the rubbish you have "accidentally" installed.
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>>Any "residue" of failed installs or uninstalls will generally haunt you afterwards. Any "residue" of programs long-since uninstalled (even successfully) will often haunt you. Cloning the drive to new fresh harddisc is perhaps the fastest way to get running -- but any "quirkyness" of the system will simply be replicated or magnified. So in the end you're up and running quickly, and have a system that's running just a slow or slower...
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>>I"ve generally noticed that I've had to reinstall Windows every 4 years or so to clean out the "garbage" that tends to accumulate.
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>Exactly my point also. I always make a clean installation on a new HD, and keep the old as D: or E:, as a temporary backup. After a few months I format the old HD, and use it for backup only.

Do you back up elsewhere as well? In the classic examples of fire and theft, everything inside the box is going to be gone.