Laptop still slow even after moving folders to an external hard drive

Whether you're some power user or just a casual browser, honestly—who in 2022 isn't running an SSD? My sources say everyone.

Here’s how I see it:
If your SSD kicks the bucket right now, I bet you'd just fish some dusty old Hard Drive out of a drawer and reinstall Windows on it—since clearly, why bother investing in anything that isn't ancient history, right?

Alexander Diaz4 said:Isuse 🤦

Seriously, what's the point with Malwarebytes, CCleaner, or defragging? It's just a massive waste of time—installing all that extra junk on a machine that's already dragging its feet is only going to slow it down until it's basically a paperweight...

Just grab an SSD, do a fresh install of Windows, and call it a day. You can find a 500GB one for maybe $60 or $70. Honestly, if you don't have an SSD in 2022, I just don't know what to tell you...

Take whatever you need from the old Hard Drive, move it to an external drive, then just format the old one. If it’s still healthy, you've got yourself a free external drive for storage or backups

They're over here talking about SQL servers, three different browsers, twelve tabs open at once, and God knows what else... meanwhile, the lady probably doesn't even know what an SSD or Command Prompt is. She likely uses one single browser with two or three tabs open just to check Facebook and some forums.

Honestly, urbanheron4 is making a totally valid point here. We’ve all just jumped to the conclusion that the hard drive is the only thing wrong with this laptop, right? But what if there's more to the story?
Everything else was just a debate about how much you should actually sink into investing in that laptop... If you’d been paying closer attention, you’d see those were just examples of what's possible with similar hardware.

urbanheron4 said:There’s actually zero mention of when exactly this laptop starts freezing up or lagging. Did we all just assume it happens while browsing the web, or does it happen even when she's just navigating through files in Windows Explorer? I don't quite get why she thought moving files to an external drive would speed things up in the first place. Is that drive completely maxed out? Since it's an HDD, maybe running a defrag might help.

I’m totally with you on that. Honestly, just slapping an SSD in there is the best move you can make if you want to actually feel a difference in speed. It's a total game-changer for the user experience. Plus, if this rig eventually kicks the bucket, you've still got a perfectly good SSD ready to go in another PC. Why wouldn't you?
Maybe she should just take it to a repair shop? They could give the laptop a good physical cleaning while they're at it.
Honestly, I’d skip all those "self-help" tips. They just end up feeding the people who start threads thinking they can DIY everything when they clearly don't have a clue where to even begin. You can't exactly master a complex skill "in five minutes via Google," right? That's exactly why professionals still exist in every field.

I’ve been rocking an SSD for like 8 years now, and man, making that jump from a clunky old Hard Drive was a total game changer...

Just picked up a laptop with an M.2 SSD, and honestly? Getting Windows installed and fully updated took maybe 15 minutes tops... I barely even noticed the time it took to copy my Windows files from the USB over to the SSD, it was just that fast.

Whenever I think back to over a decade ago when a simple installation would drag on for an hour or more—and then I see people out there today *still* running their OS on a Hard Drive... seriously?

Look, I’m not exactly some high-maintenance power user or anything, but if I were forced to go back to a Hard Drive, I'd probably lose my mind.

Michael Jackson10 said:Honestly, urbanheron4 is making a totally valid point here. We’ve all just jumped to the conclusion that the hard drive is the only thing wrong with this laptop, right? But what if there's more to the story?
Everything else was just a debate about how much you should actually sink into investing in that laptop... If you’d been paying closer attention, you’d see those were just examples of what's possible with similar hardware.

I’m totally with you on that. Honestly, just slapping an SSD in there is the best move you can make if you want to actually feel a difference in speed. It's a total game-changer for the user experience. Plus, if this rig eventually kicks the bucket, you've still got a perfectly good SSD ready to go in another PC. Why wouldn't you?
Maybe she should just take it to a repair shop? They could give the laptop a good physical cleaning while they're at it.
Honestly, I’d skip all those "self-help" tips. They just end up feeding the people who start threads thinking they can DIY everything when they clearly don't have a clue where to even begin. You can't exactly master a complex skill "in five minutes via Google," right? That's exactly why professionals still exist in every field.

honestly, for any troubleshooting thread, people just jump straight to throwing out solutions, ideas, and guesses

without even bothering to actually read the half-baked, incomplete info provided by the person dealing with the issue...

then, after ten posts and three days of back-and-forth, they finally chime in with something like, "oh, I think this started happening after I..."

I’ve said it before—it’s exactly like having your check engine light pop up in your car, calling a mechanic, and expecting them to fix the whole mess over the phone.

Come on, take it easy...
Not everyone is being difficult. Like I said in my first reply, I need to know if she’s actually cleaned the system lately (she didn't say), if Windows 10 prompts her to run a disk check during startup to verify the HDD health (didn't answer that either), and what kind of laptop we're even dealing with so we can figure out the hardware specs (still waiting on that one).

To stop the laptop from totally choking, I'd suggest an SSD as the most important upgrade. I’m running a 120GB one myself, which is definitely cheaper than $67 brand new ones. Right now, on my machine, just having Firefox open with a single tab (like Reddit) eats up about 2.2GB of RAM.
-Windows 10 treats CleanMyMac like malware sometimes and just wipes it out.
-I make sure to run a disk defrag on Windows 10 every week if she hasn't touched it.

If I don't get answers to the questions we asked, I'm done commenting..

Look, fine, let them go with an SSD. My suggestions weren't meant to be alternatives to that, just things they could try before dropping serious cash on hardware. Besides, if they do swap to an SSD, they’ll have to reinstall Windows anyway, so they might as well clear up any software glitches while they're at it.
On my machine, running Firefox plus this forum, a single tab is eating up 3.1 GB. Though, honestly, Avast might be swallowing the rest of the RAM.
And what do you mean Windows 10 deletes CleanMyMac? I've had it installed for five or six years now and haven't run into a single issue.

But yeah, this is a mess. And the Rule of Law is the last group that's actually going to care about fixing this.

Installing an SSD—which can eventually be moved over to a new laptop—along with an extra 4 GB of RAM if there’s an open slot (otherwise, an 8 GB stick), will basically give this machine a second life...

If the technician also cleans out the internals, applies fresh thermal paste, and does a clean install of Windows, all those issues should be a thing of the past.

Thanks a million to everyone for all the helpful replies!

Now, I’ve got one more quick question—roughly what kind of damage am I looking at for the SSD, those extra GB of RAM, and a good deep cleaning? Also, could you

maybe shoot me a DM with a recommendation for someone reliable—ideally somewhere on the West Coast side of town?

🙏

D: ...I'm not from Maui.