"turn on network discovery wont stay 'on'" and connecting to an xp machine

I have an xp machine connected by wire to a wireless router, which my win7 machine is accessing wirelessly.

I want to be able to take files off my old xp machine machine onto my new win7. I dont mind if I canonly see a connection from one side or another as long as I can grab these veyr large files...

I can for some reason see mp3's that are stored in my xp machines 'my music' folder, i can click them and they will play on win media player on win7. I can also ping the xp machine from the win 7 one.

I have tried literally HOURS of fiddling about with this and my brain is fried... I try to go into advanced network settings and change network discovery so that it is on. when I leave the setup menu even after pressing save and enter it again it will be on off.

the xp machine doesnt appear in my workgroup or homegroup whatever it is called now... I can access through internet browser by using ip

I have a cable connecting the machines directly now but i cant see it doing anything at all (and im not even sure it a direct connect cable, ive tried two i think one is-same result for both)

Ive turned off firewalls (and i can ping and access the music anyhow) ive tried turning off homeghroup, renaming the xp workgroup to the same name as win7, and generally just playing with settings (password off, public sharing and writing on)

If someone knows the solution to this prob I would be sooo grateful. This is driving me nutso

hey mate same problem here. hope someone has a solution.