One option is to simply ghost the drive with something like Partition Magic (or some freeware that does the same thing) like these http://en.kioskea.net/faq/1391-free-alternative-to-partition-magic
...of course if the drives are different sizes you'll have to re-partition the new machine's drive when your done to get all your space back. The other hangup can be device drivers - depending upon what your coming from & what you're going too it might not work at all and either way you'll have to do a windows update to get all the right drivers. Anyway I've done it before and managed to get it all working.

>My daughter's laptop has become flaky to the point that I don't trust it and want to replace it before she goes back to Milwaukee for spring semester. Any recommendations on the most painless way to transfer her data files, desktop, and so on to the new laptop without having to reinstall everything? In this case I bet there really is a magic wand.