can i just take the hdd out and put it in a new computer?
What are you trying to do? Are you trying to make the new computer "become" the old computer by transplanting the harddrive? If so, then the short answer is No. The registry stores information specific to the hardware of the computer it's on, such as sound cards, motherboards, etc. and expects that information to be correct when Windows boots. There's a chance that Windows will be able to change all the changes to the hardware, update the registry, and everything will be fine, but don't bet on it. Also, who's to say your non-start error isn't caused by that harddrive? Then you'd be copying the same problem to the new computer.
If you simply want access to all the data on the drive, then yeah most likely you can just plop it in. I say most likely because I don't have all the information I need yet. A lot of out-of-the-box computers have two IDE channels, which allows for four devices -- typically a harddrive, and a cdrom/dvdrom/etc. I have however seen some with only one IDE channel, which means your harddrive and cd leave no room for anything else, or computers with four IDE devices connected, say, two harddrives, a cdrom, and a dvd-burner, again leaving no room for anything else. If that's the case, you'll just need to disconnect one of the devices, and configure the harddrive to the same master/slave settings as the device you took out. If you have more than one harddrive in the new computer, be sure to not disconnect the Master drive on the Primary IDE. (If you don't know what's the Primary, trace the cables back to the motherboard, and it'll say either PRIMARY or SECONDARY.)
Of course, if you're using SATA, none of this is relevant.
Another alternative if you just want the data off the drive is to buy an external enclosure. You put the drive in the enclosure and plug it into the computer via usb.
