PC Files Won't Transfer to iMac

I followed instructions in "Switching to the Mac--The Missing Manual." Bought an external hard drive, connected it to the PC, moved all my files onto it, disconnected it, connected it to the Mac, and all the files come up as .Ink except the Bookmarks, which I am able open in Firefox, but they are still on the external drive and won't "move." Any ideas? I am transferring Word and Excel docs, and do have MS Office for Mac on the new iMac. Also tried to transfer some applications, to no avail. Help please!

.lnk is the extension for shortcuts in windows. are you sure you are actually copying the files to the external drive or are you just creating a shortcut? what are you doing to move them to the external drive?

I"m thinkin the OP is not using thr right mouse button in Windows.....now erase the links from the external drive reconnect it to your Windows PC select the files you want to copy over then use the right mouse button and drag them to the external drive , when you release the mouse button a menu will pop up, asking what do you want to do, Copy, Move or create shortcut....choose copy and it'll copy the files over in their entirety.