No picture on laptop

I have an HP laptop I bought in 12/06 (just before Vista came out) – It will turn on but there is no video. Prior to all this, it use to display blue horizontal lines but after being on a few minutes would disappear. I have a funny feeling it’s a video card? I ended up buying a new laptop (another HP, I’m a die-hard..lol) but how can I retrieve all my “stuff” off my old laptop? Is there something I can buy to “piggyback”? or do I have to have the old hard drive removed? I don’t have much money to spend. I can take apart & put together desktops, but when it comes to laptops, I’m clueless.