LAN Problems!! moving files to xp from 7

[drums4everyth]

I recently did a reinstall for my machine. first, i connected a laptop (windows 7 home premium) to my xp with an ethernet cable. then, enabled the LAN adapters and disabled the wifi on both (just incase i accidently started sharing files over wifi... too slow for the amount of stuff i need to move)... once i did all that, everything worked fine!

so i reinstalled... got back up to sp3, updated all the drivers, and tried to reconnect to that laptop to get my stuff back. my computer wasnt discovered, so i did some research and found i needed the "link-layer topology discovery responder" (which doesnt come with xp or any sp's). when i got that, the laptop says my machines name and also says "unidentifiable network".

on the xp machine, it says "limited or no connectivity"... i have a physical address, ip address (that wont renew), and a subnet mask.. everything else is blank.

on the laptop, it says "unidentifiable network"... have a physical address, dhcp enabled, autoconfiguration ipv4 address, ipv4 subnet mask, netbios over tcpip enabled, link-local ipv6 address, and ipv6 dns servers... everything else is blank.

and the only things that match up are the subnetmasks.... thats all! anything that i did not mention is blank! half the details on the laptop arent even there for the xp.... i understand windows 7 and xp are pretty different, so i dont expect to see the same details but i have no idea if that IPv4 and IPv6 stuff is supposed to be there on my xp or not.... maybe i have some more updating to do? am i missing something here?

[drums4everyth]

actually, if there's too much problem with fixing this, does anyone know of a way around this without going wireless? the files i need take 29min on ethernet or 23 hours over wireless... i remember, when i tried to go wifi, i had random files that didnt like to transfer (i guess they timed out or something?). i hear usb connections can screw everything up, so im not going to try that unless someone is absolutely positive of their directions.... maybe plugging both computers right into the router with ethernet cables? i have no idea if that woud make anything faster. i just want these files, no necessarily the issue resolved (although that would be awesome, if i ever had to do something like this again).

thanks in advance!

[drums4everyth]

i dont have an external drive of any sort that can hold 30GB, and im not going to burn 8 dvds lol...id rather send the info to the other windows 7 tower, stick my xp hdd in it, and transfer like that.... actually id rather not, but more than wifi or dvds! is there a way to link the wifi with no other network at all except my computer to the laptop? not even internet? maybe the bandwidth would be enough to get it done fast.... i have no idea. any ideas? hahahaha

[PCguy]

You have said lots here. Can I ask if you are directly connecting from one PC to the other? If so you will need to put static addresses in each and use a cross over cable or some sort of huh/switch between them.