how do i recover my files and programs

Clarifications

"i had to do a new install of windows xp home to my laptop since the old version became corrupted and wouldn't boot . the new version is on drive d. i didn't reformat my harddrive so i'm presuming that the files are still there."

1) I assume from your opening paragraph that you have one hard drive that is partitioned into drives C and D, and you performed a fresh install of XP onto drive D?

2) Are you able to access the C: partition through the D: partition?

3) "can i just pull a system restore out of the old installation and use it in the new installation in order to bring my stuff back.also can i remove the old install and just use the new one afterwards"...truthfully, if you want to restore your D: partition using your corrupt C: partition, I wouldn't recommend it. You'd risk corrupting your new install. I would try to access the corrupt install from the existing install and see what files you can pull from there. You didn't mention how the corruption occurred, however; if it was due to a virus, that's a completely different can of worms.

How did your existing installation become corrupt? If you did not reformat, yes, your files are still there and are potentially retrieveable, but you need to decide if it's worth the risk to bring them back.