If the problem is related to the USB 1.1 specification of your old laptop then perhaps a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card could help? although spending more money on your old laptop is probably not the best solution being that you've just purchased a new one.

I take it you have decided that copying all data to an external device and transferring it that way is not an option?

Have you thought about just transferring the files over network? I know that this does not assist in getting your USB device to function, but it will get your files moved.

If they are on the same LAN it's easy enough to setup sharing between the two computers. (more info than you'll need on setting up a public folder in Vista http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037(TechNet.10).aspx )

Alternately, you could get a crossover cable and connect them directly to each other.

Other than that, Vista runs 20+ programs to track you, barfs multimedia files and you agreed to allow Microsoft and any 3rd-party in Microsoft's club to modify any file on your computer (read your EULA).

Why would you want that???

... not a bug.

had a similar problem moving from a 2004 Advent to a new Insiron 1525 a few weeks back. After an hour of dicking about I just copied all my data onto a 120GB Freecom Toughdrive and moved it to the Dell manually. Took a few hours, but at the end of the process I knew all the data had been moved and had an up to date back up copy of everything on the Toughdrive.

Asking a support question involving the words "Windows Vista" here of all places?

Enjoy your abuse from the windows XP crowd, smug FOSSFags and Mac Users.

More seriously, just buy one of those little USB enclosures for laptop HD's and move your stuff that way. I've never had one of those cable solutions work properly.