incredibly slow cloning

first, i've read all the posts i could find on this topic and found a number of similiar issues but usually with slight variation that i'm not sure don't make their solutions non-applicable to mine

i'm on a 2006 Gateway Profile 6 desktop, running windows XP Pro, with an original HDD of 160GB, that's about 80% full, and i'm trying to clone a bootable disk, a new 500GB samsung disk using TrueImage2010. The new HDD is connected to the Gateway Profile 6 thru a USB port using a SATA adaptor

started cloning last nite at 7:00 PM, by midnight it had cloned 32%, by 4:00AM it was at 52%, and by 8:00AM the next morning it was still only 60% done - i had to discontinue the backup to use the computer in my home based business. I've reformatted the new disk so it's ready for a fresh start.

when it started the "bootable clone" it partitioned my new drive into proportional drives and i was performing this, i assume from within windows.

A response in one of the threads i reviewed, indicated it would be quicker to boot the computer using the recovery CD made using TrueImage 2010.

then to burn an "Image" to the new HDD, then installing the new HDD into the computer, starting it again with the recovery CD and then using that CD to also install the Image, i assume, back onto the same newly installed new HDD

this is getting awfully confusing -

I would like to try the simpler approach of making a bootable cloned HDD - is there anything i can do to speed up the process - priority was set to high, new HDD speed was set to max and using taskmanager i could see no other apps running or occupying any serious ram (i've got 2GB of ram)
any suggestions??

please keep in mind in your response, i'm not an IT specialist
I have swapped HDDs before but installed all the original programs etc from the mfgr, which took most of a day. so basically, i'm one notch above "fred flintstone" on computers