Restoring a Backup: Different configuration

My machine currently has two IDE drives.
Drive 0 is C: 80GB
Drive 1 is D: and E: 80 GB

I've successfully made a full backup and verify it restores just fine to the
current configuration.
Now, I want to replace the two IDE drives with a single SATA (320 GB) drive.

Do I need to setup this new drive with three partitions and peform a full
restoration without formatting or partitioning?
Or, can I simply select format and partition as part of the full restoration
and end up with the previous three partitions on one drive?

(Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

TIA