Can anyone help with the following migration issue?

This is my first entry to the Apple Support Community. Hope I give enough info.

•How do I migrate from a late 2007 24" iMac with a garbled screen, (which is due to a rapidly deteriorating GPU, I'm assuming) to an early 2011 MacBook Pro, 17". First I tried using the Time Machine backup from the iMac on an external hard drive but most of the folders and files are unaccesible with a round red circle with a white minus sign as they are now on the MacBook. I also mistakenly copied over the Time Machine backup disk, so all I have is the iMac with the very difficult to near impossible to read display. Can this be done with verbose login (which I've never done) or can I merely hook the machines up via Firewire or ethernet? Thanks from a neophyte.