I'm swapping my old ide hardrive to a new build and it has ubuntu11.10 on it

[jbander]

I'm wondering after I boot it up will the ubuntu work on the new computer.

[RickyTick]

I could be wrong, but I would guess that it would not work since operating systems are joined to that motherboard.
You may want to post on the Ubuntu forums.
http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php