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.



FWIW, I've always found that biting the bullet and doing a reinstall of applications is better...especially if the operating system on the new laptop is different than the old one. Yes, it means more additional work. but the results, IMO, are better.

So a reinstall, followed by a transfer of free-standing files, folders, docs via a USB drive, is the way I do it. To me, it's like a fresh start. Just my two cents.