For transferring data between two computer's you need a specially designed Easy transfer cable. A regular USB cable might not be useful. You may refer to Microsoft article Here. One such example of Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 is Here. Hope this helps.

Oddly enough it seems that the track pad/mouse pointer stops working when the screen is black. e.g. during the time the screen is black the pointer on the screen doesn't move. I thought it might be related to the back light on the keyboard or the touch buttons.

It may not fit and the power supply would need to be updated. 79xx cards can be 10 to 12 inches long and 2 slots wide and require 750W or better power supply with 2x PCI-E power connections.