Question: My laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate (non OEM) died on me today and it has tons of stuff on it - my projects, Visual Studio and office installations, etc. etc.

I am getting a new laptop from somewhere and was wondering if I could just unplug the hard disk from my original (dead) machine and plug it into the new one.

I remember trying this once with Windows XP (on a desktop) and the OS crashed on boot and I had to reinstall everything again.

I have read about [sysprep](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799240%28WS.10%29.aspx#CommonSysprepScenarios) but by the looks of it, it can be used only when the host computer is alive and kicking -- which mine isn't.

My old laptop was a Compaq Pressario v3000 (3 years old) on an AMD and the new one is going to be a new dual core Intel HP laptop.

Answer: 
Ihe drivers in use are completely different between your old computer and the new one.

You can plug it in and turn it on, but be prepared to spend a lot of time updating drivers, if it works at all.

You should try booting into safe mode first, and then update your chipset drivers first. HP should have a list of drivers for your machine and the order to install them.
You can't boot off that hard drive, as the drivers don't match between the two computers. You'll get an instant BSOD on boot. To recover your data, boot to a Linux LiveCD, and copy your files to an external HDD, flash drive, or couple of discs.