I have a HP pavilion laptop running windows vista with a cracked screen but everything else works fine. I also have an old sony vaio laptop running windows xp. Is it possible to gut and remove everything from the old sony vaio and transfer the operating system, hard drive, memory, etc from the new HP with the cracked screen to the sony vaio? I wasn't sure if the old sony vaio laptop could be used as a shell to run my HP on it.

I wasn't sure if the old sony vaio laptop could be used as a shell to run my HP on it.

I think the probability is extremely low, like nonexistent, but post the model numbers and perhaps someone familiar with the internals of those models will supply a definitive answer. What you are asking would be akin to wondering if you could take your Porsche 911 components and stick them in your Ford Fiesta. Yeah you could, but it would involve a lot of cutting, welding, and fabrication.

I agree with Scleros, probablility is low. Depends how much time you want to put in to research and possibly welding. Of course you always have the option of using an external monitor.