We need to buy a new laptop and are looking at a dell. The programs that we need to keep are on our hp laptop and we don't have the original data discs. Can we buy the new laptop and put the old hard drive in it? Or, so you have a suggestion about how to get the programs out of the old computer and transfer to the new one????

Almost certainly not. The hard drives on the newer laptops are usually SATA, the older ones PATA, and even if the hard drive would work the operating system won't because Windows is designed to recognize the hardware it is installed on and to refuse to operate on a different system. What you can do when you get the new laptop is get a external case for the old drive, again of the correct type, and use it to connect to the new machine. You will be able to get your files off but you can't transfer the programs unless you saved the installation files for them somewhere. You can then use the old drive for extra storage and file backup.

Thank you. I was not sure if this would work or not. My computer is an HP Intel Pentium 1500 mhz, 1.50ghz, 512 mb of RAM. I was looking at a new Dell.

Tyger,

If I were to purchase the new programs what would be the best way to move all of my old files over. I do contract work writing training programs and I have a ton on my hard drive that would have to move over. Should I take it to a CompUSA or something similar or could I do it myself?

If the old one is still working you can just network them on a router and move the files over, either using the Windows network setup or an FTP server and client.