The way I usually does it is:

Buy a bigger hard disk and install it as a master. The old drive as a slave. I don't have to copy anything to cd's, etc. Keep the old drive as a backup for the old files and only erase the unwanted files. Also, before copying the data file, make an image copy of your new drive (without the data) and store it in the slave drive(old drive) using ghost software.

The only risk is if you somehow dropped or somehow mess up the old drive in the process of installation.

Another way is if you have more than one computer is to copy it accross the network.

I usually do both to be safe.

I hate copying to cd's and this is how I get around doing it.