I want to copy another computers hard disk to mine HOW??

i recently purchased a dell xps17. i need to retrieve my old files from my hp dv6000 laptop but the motherboard is shot. the hard drive is good. i had it checked. is there a way i can run my old hard drive as an extrenal hard drive? The new laptop is windows 7 and the hp is windows xp. is there a way to run 2 operating systems on the same computer? if not, can i at least use the old hardrive for external storage and extract files from it as i need them? can this be done thry the usb ports?
Thanks....

Yep, use the USB ports. Get an external enclosure for the old drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817182138

dv6000 I'm pretty sure has a SATA drive. You may need to take ownership of the files if you end up with rights issues when trying to view the files. I would not use this as a main storage for files, copy the files to your new laptop, use the external drive for backups.