Pixielabs XXCOPY [
http://www.xxcopy.com/ ] is free and great for cloning drives (and a lot else besides) - no problems with NTFS. Syntax of Xxcopy is arcane so RTFM.
I'm not sure how extensively XP checks the HDD before deciding that it has been pirated, but it almost certainly at least looks at the Volume ID (XXXX-XXXX) - you can change this with VolumeID from Sysinternals [
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/so...shtml#VolumeId ] to be the same on both disks.
Even this may not work - 2000/XP possibly looks at the (different) MBR as it wakes up and assigns a new (different) GUID. Pixielabs are working on XXCLONE and there is a beta release.
Dunno if XP gets upset if it sees two disks with the same Volume ID....
Acronis looks nice at $45 - worth reading the FAQ tho'