>>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.
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>Hi Mike
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>I agree with Kevin.
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>Its a good chance for a clear out and you'll get a better result. It can be a problem if you haven't kept all the original discs etc for installing but thats a good lesson in housekeeping :-)
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>I've resurrected my childrens old machines on occasion with a complete clear out and buying some extra RAM.

I think about the only apps that will need to be reinstalled are Office (student edition) and AVG, and in both cases I have the discs. AFAIK at this point everything else she uses is web enabled.

Which is a glimpse of the future, no doubt. Geezers like us with our stacks of DVDs and CDs to be reinstalled are the end of an era. Granted, as developers we are in a different category from most computer users and need some local installs. But netbooks will get the job done for the vast majority of users. All they need is the ability to store their data files locally. With 8 GB USB sticks selling for about $20 now, that's hardly an issue.