When you get a new computer, what files do you move with you?

I carry several files in semi-organized folders, as follows:

Digital Camera files (sorted by year-month)
Videos (Safe for Work)
Videos (NSFW)
(photos follow the same pattern)
Junk Folder (all the stuff cluttering My Documents)
Crap Folder (all the stuff cluttering my Desktop)
Programs (primary software I need to run in any computer)
Advanced Programs (my secondary stash of 1337 softwares)
Game Files (mods, saves, etc of several games, sorted in folders named after each game)
Bookmarks (a single backup file with all my Firefox favorites)
iTunes Folder (all my music, old videos and podcasts cramped in one big folder)

Also hidden as subfolders:
Extreme Crap (a stack of amazing software that are either incompatible or outdated, but I never delete it)
Bull s*** (research files and study documents, powerpoint presentations, etc)

So what files do you take with you, as opposed to leaving to sink with your ship?

If it was me, i will backup the following data on DVD disk (or CD). I will only put it back to my NEW computer when i needed.
First thing to restore is programs, and firefox bookmarks:

Programs <=== if this a master installation, KEEP it.
if its a location where you have your program installed, no need to keep)
Bookmarks (a single backup file with all my Firefox favorites)

photos
Videos (Safe for Work)
Videos (NSFW)
(photos follow the same pattern)
Game Files
iTunes Folder (all my music, old videos and podcasts cramped in one big folder)

Photos, 3D art, MP3, Softwares, Videos, Games, internet favorites, documents, fractal formulas.

you take whatever is important to you. but not software because it will cause your computer to malfunction... so what do you do?? download the software or your new com from the Cd.

You CANNOT "gather" up programs/applications and transfer them to another computer because of the Registry problems, so you're, more or less, using up space for them if you don't use them at all and simply "saving" them for a rainy day, unless you happen to have AlohaBob on a disk that would do it for you.

You can always buy an external hdd caddy and put your old hard drive in there so you access to your old files just in case you need them.

When you get a new hard drive you could partition it and format the partitions with different formats and install different operating systems on each partition if you still want to run old programs.

The answer depends on where you have put the files you have created as data. You cannot "move" most program files (executables) between Windows machines, so you have to install the programs from distribution media (CD or floppy disk) onto the new machine. If you followed the conventions, saving all files you created to the correct default location, most of your data files will be in the directory "My Documents" and its subdirectories. That will then be all you have to move. However, some programs often have a "work" subdirectory under their program name subdirectory in the main Program Files directory, instead of using My Documents, so, if you have any programs you allowed to behave this way you must hunt down every working subdirectory and copy its contents to the new subdirectory under Program Files after you install the programs on your new machine. A third group of programs uses neither My Programs nor Program Files, but its own subdirectory under "My Computer C:\", and these will have to be moved one directory at a time. I think iTunes works this way, but I don't use it much so am not sure. If you have a CD write drive, the easiest thing is to just search for all your data files and burn them onto a CD, then read them from there onto the new machine. Good Luck!

any files that i want ; )