Would like to hook up old HDD to new PC

[XDRoX]

I have a new PC running Vista. I have my old PC with XP on it. There are programs that I can't get to run on my new PC, so I would like to take the HDD out of the old PC and put it in the new one.

Is this possible?

I would then like to tell the new PC to boot up off the old HDD running XP with all my old stuff on it.

Is this possible?

I know some of you have more than one OS on one PC, but I have no idea how to tell my PC to do it.

One last hiccup is my old HDD is IDE and my new PC does not have IDE, only SATA.
Do they make a IDE to SATA conversion?

Thanks

 

[thirdshiftdj]

I don't see that working. Example, when you install new parts like a motherboard or cpu you have to do a new install of Windows.

 

[XDRoX]

Thanks for the help.
The real problem I'm having is getting some study program that my wife uses to run on my new PC.
When I put in the disk an error box pops up saying:

F:\setup.exe is not a valid Win32 application.

Do you have any idea what would cause this or how I can get this program to run?
I have even copy and pasted the program file from my old PC onto an external HDD and tried to run it off the HDD. The program actually opens but when I try to start a practice test a bunch of boxes pop up like it can't find the question bank or something.

 

[thirdshiftdj]

usually because its not made to run on Vista. What software is it? Maybe I can help you look up some things about it.