connect old hard drive to new laptop

the motherboard on my old laptop died and i need to run a couple of programs that are on it... i have an external case to put it in and that looks pretty straightforward... my questions:
both harddrives have WinXP Pro installed, i need to run a program in Access 2003... how do I do that if both drives have Access 2003 installed? (the program i need to run won't appear in the start menu i assume)
can i run the program with a new computer that does NOT have Access 2003 installed, if Access 2003 is installed on the now external hard drive??

I'm just not sure how things work when i plug the old hard drive into the new computer via USB, although I realize that the external drive will apprear in My Computer as such

also, the external case came with a CD that said drivers, but no real instructions... do i just plug the ext. drive in first and it will ask me for the location of the drivers, or do i have to install from the CD and then plug them together?

sorry for sounding like a novice but i guess i am at this aspect of things :-(

 

If you transfer your old OS hard drive to an external usb enclosure, I'm guessing that it will most likely behave like a simple data storage device when you plug it into your other PC. If I am correct, the old OS will not be recognized and the old programs (including Access 2003) will not function. However, if it does work as I described, and you do have Access 2003, installed on your OS hard drive, then you could simply open them (on the external drive) with your installed version of Access 2003 and work with them as necessary or you could just transfer all of the data files to your OS hard drive permanently to recover them.

 

thanks for your help and moral support (I needed that the most, jumping into unknown waters)... i got the old hard drive into the enclosure and plugged it in; it worked like a "mass storage device", no CD with drivers necessary... I copied the files I needed onto the new computer and i am on my way again!

 

Nice job!!