How do I transfer a hard drive w/windows 8 to working pc?

[runninbare]

My old Gateway desktop crashed, is non-repairable, when I tried the harddrive into the newer Gateway, it came up blank blue screen......checking file system on G, CHKDSK verifying files.......& nothing came up on it, a computer tech at the store checked it, said it was working & had 16G on it,.........can I buy a backup device, & try to transfer it to the working computer on a new blank hard drive?

[Geek-9pm]

Two things you need to think about.
1. Data recovery. This means the simple data can be recovered.
2. Program transfer. Some programs can be transferred from one computer to another. But often not. The program is there, but it will not run.

Myself, I have given up on stuff that claims to transfer all my programs from on PC to another. They claim it works, but you have to fork up the money first to see it work. I refuse to pay for anything that is not proved to work. It it really works, they would have thousands of endorsements. 

[camerongray]

You can copy your files off yes, but you cannot move the Windows install or programs to a new machine without properly reinstalling them.