>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.
What I always do when I buy a new computer, is to install only the programs that I really need on the new machine. Every program I rarely use, I don't install until I need them again, which often is never. That way I end up with a machine which starts up much faster, and is much "cleaner". And I am very careful to only install the programs on C:, all data goes to d:.
I also always mount the primary hard drive from my old computer as a second or third hard drive in the new one. And I make sure that I do this
after the new one is up and running. If the new computer does not have room for the old HD, I mount the old HD in an external enclosure and connect it via USB. After some time, usually about a year, I reformat the old drive, and use it for data storage or for backups.