How can I connect my laptop to my PC directly?

Direct connect cable.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/142324

use a cross-over cable. they're pretty cheap, and plugin to your ethernet ports to set up a small, computer-to-computer network.

assuming you're using windows xp: plugin the cables. turn off all firewalls, because these usually cause trouble. windows should detect the connection, but will tell that there is a problem with it. to fix the problem, you need to manually change the ip addresses on both computers. go to the control panel, right-click My Network Places, click Properties from the pop-up menu, right-click the Local Area Connection adapter, and again click Properties on the pop-up menu. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/ IP) in This Connection Uses The Following Items. Click Properties. Click the Use The Following IP Address button. Enter an IP address. In a peer to peer network where there is no server handing out IP addresses, it's best to enter an IP address such as 192.168.0.XXX, where XXX is a number ranging from five to 250). Each device on your network should have a unique IP address. For the Subnet mask number, use 255.255.255.0. Click OK. Subnet (short for subnetwork) refers to all machines on the same LAN. you should now be able to share files. (you might have to turn on sharing for the folders you wish to share. right click the folder and click on the sharing tab, and allow it)

see the following for more help

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/explain/about-ether...

Most of computers now have NIC, or Network Card, just buy the cable and connect them, the Windows will take care the rest.

To access the files, just shared the folders

USB, Bluetooth, network cable (use a patch cable to connect directly, else use a hub), infrared connection.

Only the network can allow general connections such as remote access as terminal server, other will only facilitate file transfers. .

Use the network (router) and you should be able to access that computers hard drive i dont know if you can do this is the 2 computers are on different operating systems windows 98 to xp etc.

can can use USB, a null-modem cable connected to the serial port or from NIC to NIC using a crossover cable...

there must be any usb cord so that you should connect it with comp and transfer your data if you don't have you can get it in hardware shop.