Retrieving content of old hd

my motherboard died and i have decided to rebuild my computer. my problem is i need the content off of my old harddrive and i read you can put a loaded hd into a new system without formatting it.
my new mb supports sata so i decided to buy a new hd and load the os onto it and then plug in my old ultra ata hd and copy what i need to the sata hd. will this work? when this is done can i reformat the ultra ata and use it as storage? could i set up a raid between my sata and ultra ata or is that not advised? thanks

when i put the old hdd into the new system do i connect it as a master or slave ? like i said i just want to get what i need and then wipe it. thats for your input. if all my parts come this week i hope to put my new computer together this weekend. yeah