[cody]

You can install the old Hard Drive as a slave (secondary HD). This will allow you to access all of your old files without networking, but it renders your old computer useless and like ScottyS pointed out, you'll have to reinstall your software and everything, but there's somthing to be said for starting out fresh anyway.

Basically, (with the system turned off) you just plug your old HD into the extra plug on the IDE cable. Even if your new system uses SATA (thin red wire as aposed to the flat ribbon IDE HD's use) the motherboard should still have an IDE port for your old HD. Once you install the old HD to your new computer and plug one of the extra power supply cables into it, startup the computer, double click my computer and it should be there as the D: drive or somthing like that. If not, the jumper may need to be set on the HD to the slave postion...usually there's a little schematic on the HD that shows you how to position the jumper to make it a slave drive.