i saw something at harvey norman once called a file bridge. i think its a USB thing or something that you plug in to 2 computers to transfer files over to it.

additionally, you can just plug the hard drive into the new computer and just copy everything off it on to the new one?

Thanks for the link. I didn't know this "repair installation" trick.
I am very familiar with disk cloning. I do this when I have several systems of the same kind. So, I will try this method next time I will have systems which are not the same kind.
However, I can proudly claim that I have something more.
The pcstats.com article is based on the most efficient method, where you physically unmount the disk from the source machine and you insert it in the target machine. And the author warns you that opening the box in a brand new computer may raise warranty problems. Besides the fact that a disk inside a tower system can probably not be inserted inside a laptop box.
What I do is slightly different, but far less dangerous.
Of course, the laptop you just brought from the market is probably already installed. And most of these pre-installed systems have a menu allowing you to create a "rescue CD" or a "rescue DVD" which is a bootable device able to re-install your system exactly as when you purchased it. i strongly recommend that you create this rescue disc, it will be very useful if you happen to fail into a virus problem when surfint on the network, or if you are angry because of everyday slower surfing capabilities.
Now, once you ave a rescue disk able to re-create your laptop operating system, everything you will do now is with no risk.
Because, I can proudly announce that I don't need to open the computer box.
What I will do is, slightly re-arrange your source computer. I'm pretty sure you already have several partitions on your old computer, let's say the C disk for the operating system and the D disk for the data.
If not, you will need to use a tool like Parition Magic in order to create a second partition with free room enough.
And, of course, if your personal files are on the C: disk, for instance your Crosoft Word or Excel documents, it's time to move them to the D: disk. And also move all your movies and pictures, move them to the D: disk so you will not need to back them up as part of the operating system. And also remember to empty the recycle bin and the internet temporary files and move all your downloaded file to the D: disk too.
Now, you have only the operating system on you D: disk, verify that you have room enough (typicall one third of the space used on the c: disk).
Now, use any backup software from the market, for instance PowerQuest Drive Image or Norton Ghost (10 or 12) in order to backup your system to a file on the D: disk.
After the backup is finished, you can put it on a DVD. If you are lucky, you can even add your files to the bootable pqdi or Ghost 10 rescue CD !
So, you go to your laptop, you boot on the CD, you ask the restore software to remove your laptop initial partition and restore to the hard disk the backup files from the DVD.
And that's all, you have cloned the old desktop computer system disk to the laptop computer system disk.
And everything until now has been harmful, you used no screwdriver, you dismounted nothing, you did not open the box of your brand new computer, you just created a CD (or a DVD) and read it on your new computer. And if you did a mistake you can easily go back with the rescue disk you first created.
Now comes the second part as esplained in the article in http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?art...=418&page=5 :
You simply have to insert the official Windows XP CD into the laptop reader, power off the laptop, and :

As I already mentionned, the cloning methodology using a bootable CD or DVD I do very frequently, it works very well and is harmless. I did it only on identical hardware, and I am really impatient to test the extra "repair install" to include the new hardware drivers.
Regards
Yordan

Sounds interesting, yordan.. I'll have to try that sometime. Thanks for the tip.

You're welcome, Grafitti. Please keep us informed. I would be really proud if you could perform your migration using my harmless method.
Yordan