>>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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>>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.
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>>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.
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>Agreed. The geek in me enjoys this task. I'm doing it tonight replacing Vista with Windows 7 on my main machine.

I know what you mean. Once done it probably won't be as much of a change as you expect but at least it will have washed the crud out. For now, anyway.

How about them Hawkeyes? I knew they were a really good team despite the record and knew they would beat Missouri. Five losses by a total of 18 points, against elite competition. Losing their tailback days before the game (idiot) and the Mizzou QB passing them silly made it interesting, but they did it. Good for them. To me it's more admirable to fight through adversity than to be untouchable.