Bigger HDD
 

I am currently using a 40Gb Hdd and am running out of space and want to upgrade to something in the region of 160Gb.
Can i do it without losing the content of my current HDD?

Just keep the hdd you have now and buy a 160 one and add it to your computer. Then you will have two hdd's.

Trouble is I want the 160Gb HDD as my master and suppose could have the other as a slave drive, but if i installed Win XP on the new HDD, would the two Hard drives clash?

No the two hard drives would not clash if you installed XP on your new 160 gig. Windows would only boot off the 160 gig unless you told it otherwise.

yeah if you installed XP onto the 160GB, and set your old one as a slave there should be no problems. Just remember to jumper them correctly.

Phew, thats good news guys.
One last dumb question.
What do i do about my anti-virus & anti-spyware software. I scan weekly so will that be affected?

just have it set to scan all drives, that way it will scan both hdd's

this is what i use.

Virus Scanners:
Zone Alarm with Antivirus (its a firewall also)
AVG free adition
Norton 2004 Aintivrus

Spyware Scanners:
Ad-aware SE Personal
Spyware Doctor
Spybot Search and Destroy
Microsoft anti-spyware

those all work good for me :D