Ghosting Hard Drives?

I just ordered a new notebook (2.16 core duo 2gb ddr 667, radeon x1600) ...excited... but anyways, I have my old one collecting dust in my room but I would like everything off that hard drive, the problem is the motherboard in the laptop is out of commission.
Which leads me to these questions..

Is it possible to ghost a hard drive, and how does it work? legal issues, what windows thinks of it yadi yada..

What are some other possible options?
Any other info relating this topic that you want to spill.

edit**

I have an 80gb 5400rpm serial ATA in my new, and a 60gb 7200rpm but not sure if it is serial ata or ata-6.

 

I once salvaged files off a friends computer (hit by lightning and fried the board) by mounting the drive in an external hard-drive enclosure that would connect to another PC via USB. He had lots of music and picture files that he had not backed up.

As far as legal aspects, I'm not sure what you mean. On most commercial PC's the operating system is OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and is "married" to the particular system it was installed on (I.E. the motherboard).

Any other programs on the hard-drive would depend on their individual EULA's. Rule of thumb - if you didn't buy it and don't have the installation media, then it most likely isn't legal to salvage it. If you did buy it but have lost the installation media, I would think it "should" be ok to salvage it from that drive - but again, since I am not a copyright expert, I'd check the EULA for each program/application in question to see what is allowed according to the license.

 

Ok, throwing all legal issues aside.. Is there a way I could get my exact files/programs/settings to the new hard drive, without causing problems with hardware...

 

Your files are yours to transfer as you wish. You can install the old laptop drive as an external drive and just drag and drop them to your new laptop. Someone more knowledgeable will have to help you with the settings. If it is a standalone executable program, just drag and drop it on your new laptop drive. Other programs usually add registry entries and changes and sometimes add critical files and drivers in locations beside the program's folder. These you will need the installer to use on your new laptop. Of course some programs are keyed to work only with certain hardware and will not work on another computer without that qualifying hardware.