Mac Newbie - intall windows and upgrade ram/hard drive question

[mos67t]

I am a toal newbie. I just got the new macbook pro. I also bought a 4GB ram, 500GB hard drive and also would like to install Windows XP (some work program only works with XP). I have the following questions...
1. Which is the best way or correct step to do this without having to redo stuff? Clone the drive, install new drive and ram at the same time, then windows through bootcamp?

2. If I do all the windows install and ram, hard drive upgrade now, do I have to reinstall windows again after the Snow Leopard coming out in Sep? And is it better to upgrade or do a clean install? I'm from windows world and new OS is better to install from scratch. Not sure how mac is.

3. I was told that some VPN program doesn't work well with fusion. I need to have AT&T vpn running so I can log on to work. But I want to try vmware with bootcamp, would this also eat up my hard drive space?

4. I also read somewhere that apple does not support drive bigger than 250GB. Does that mean I should just do 250GB partiton for each?

I can wait til September when Snow leopard is out but I need to have my mac up and running by Sep 15th before I travel. So, i don't have to carry two laptops. Thank you for any help and inputs.

 

[MacDawg]

1. Yes, clone your drive, install the new RAM and HD, then restore your clone and use Boot Camp to create your Windows partition

2. No, you should be able to just upgrade to Snow Leopard without a reinstall. If you happen to prefer a clean install of SL, you can use Winclone to clone your Windows drive as well.

3. I am not aware of VPN issues with VMware Fusion, but they have a good support forum in case you experience problems. Fusion will be able to run your Boot Camp partition, so it does not duplicate HD space.

4. Not sure what you mean about 250 GB restrictions. I have a 500 GB Scorpio Blue that works fine.

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[mos67t]

Thank you so much for the info!