OK, my aunt (the one who's computer just died) got a new Dell, and I am going over this evening to hook it up. The thing is there is no reasonable way to transfer the files from the old computer to the new one. If I pull the HD out of the old one and put it in the new one will Windows XP recognize the new HD without formatting it? And how difficult is it to pull it out of the old one and put it in the new one?

Xp should recognize the HD without probs , and pulling it out is easy.

Max 6 screws , 1 ide cable and one powercable. Plugs only fit one way , the only prob could be space , if its a small tower then it might be difficult to get it out of its tray but if you're careful then that shoudn't be a prob either.

If I just run a USB transfer cable can I transfer that way? Or do I need software?

The problem your going to have is the hard drive still has the old motherboard driver's on it. You can set it to a slave setting and if you have a spare copy to that one then reformat.

I will just pick up a file transfer USB cable at Walley World, anyone know of any free software for the transfer?

Ya XP transfer wizard :-)

Cool, forgot about that :-). Thanks for your guys's help :-).