I recently acquired a new hard drive to replace a small one and thought I might be able to just transfer it over from c (the small one) to e and then be done with it, but really don't seem to know what I'm doing I guess. Can anybody tell me how to or what the alternative is before I really mess it up

You had the right idea, plug both harddrives in and just copy the data over. BUT, if you the ENTIRE hard drive (Operating System, Account settings and so forth) to remain in place, you will need to use a program that will be able to transfer the data.

Although it IS old Norton Ghost would copy your entire hard drive to a new one. I'm not sure what any newer programs are called, since I simply install the Operating System onto the new hard drive, copy the files I want and continue. :)