I have a Sony Vaio desktop (PCV-RZ24G) which stopped booting. (nothing happens at all)  Can I move the hard drive to a new computer so that I just keep all the old programs without having to reinstall them on a new hard drive?  How will I know whether the hard drive is compatible with a new system?

   If that drive was the only drive on the first computer, you should be able to put it on the second computer and if it is the drive that the computer boots from, everything should be the same as it was on the first computer.  If the second computer has the same problem that the first computer had when it boots (or doesn't boot), the problem with your first computer was probably on the drive and not in the computer.
   If you put the drive on the second computer and it is an extra drive (not the boot drive), you will have to reinstall all of the programs in order to use them (unless they were already installed on the second computer).
   Unless the drive is a really, really old drive, it should be compatible.

Also, don't forget, if you have two hard drives on the second computer and you are installing the old hard drive as the second drive, you have to change the jumper to slave mode.

onemaddude