Go to www.grc.com there, Steve Gibson has a utility that while not free, will pay for itself 1000x over. I think this is the link: http://grc.com/spinrite.htm This guy is a software engineer's engineer. You can also learn a hell of a lot more about drives than you ever wanted to.
Yes - but if you want to boot from the new drive you will first have to make it your primary drive. Take the old drive out. Install the new drive. Install the OS. Install the old drive as the second drive. Copy the files over. Mike