I just looked back though this thread and I don't see where you said what and how you backed up your data. Did you backup just your data and if so to what?

Have you considered getting an external hard drive and doing an image backup of your computer. Then if for some reason the restore doesn't work or you're not happy with it, you could restore the image and you would be right back where you are now.

There is nothing on the laptop that is not also on my desktop. The laptop is WinXP, which I use at my mothers, & the desktop is Win7 which I use here. What is "doing an image backup of your computer", & can it be done to an 8GB DVD? If so, how please? I can reinstall any & all programs I need later. It is so slow, I ran PCPitStops's PCMatic, it took over ten hours. Then I ran Spybot S&D. Hope it is clean now.

No, you don't want to backup to DVD. It's incredibly slow and would require multiple 8GB DVDs. An external hard drive is the way to go and is something you should look into. You can use it to backup the Desktop and Laptop now, or in the future. You can get a 1TB MyBook for $80 to $90 online. There area other choices as well, that's just one I know of.

If there is nothing on the Laptop that you are concerned about losing and you don't want to go the External HD route, then I'd say do it.