Make your Computer LIGHTSPEED FAST with this one upgrade!

5 min readJul 5, 2021

Ahhh the spinning beach ball of death or the blue spinning wheel in Windows. Nobody likes seeing this. What if I told you this could be a thing of the past? All you have to do is replace the biggest bottleneck in your system, the hard drive.

What is a hard drive?

Many times people refer to their entire computer as the hard drive or CPU. Tech’s know what one is talking about when someone says this. However, the actual definition of a hard drive is “a high-capacity, self-contained storage device containing a read-write mechanism plus one or more hard disks, inside a sealed unit. Also called hard disk drive.”

A hard disk is a magnetic plate that contains the 1’s and 0’s

Ok so you might be thinking ”I don’t speak greek buddy” (or maybe in this case geek :p) I get it. Just think of the hard drive as a giant filing cabinet that stores EVERYTHING on your computer.

Why is my hard drive a bottleneck?

A CPU in modern computers or even older models calculate at lightspeed. RAM has always been fast and we just keep adding to its capacity. However, most hard drives are limited to speeds of 5400 RPM’s or 7200RPM’s

The faster your hard drive can spin the faster in theory it should be. However, the more data you access simultaneously can limit the effectiveness of even the fastest spinning drives. Also, since your hard drive is mechanical in nature it is more prone to failing compared to other components.

The solution to the bottleneck issue

The solution to your bottleneck is a Solid-State Drive. A Solid-State Drive, like its name implies is solid and has no mechanical moving parts. This means it is faster, quieter and more resilient than traditional Hard Drives.

Upgrading your Computer

So how do you actually go about upgrading your computer to an SSD? Well like most things in IT you have a few different options, and which option you choose depends on your goals.

Option 1 Swap to a drive of the same size (Easiest Option)

This is by far the easiest option. It might be the most flexible option as you can still add a storage drive in the future. This is not an extensive guide on migrating to an SSD but it will give you a good idea of the process involved.

BACKUP!!!! (Seriously backup your system. If you want a guide on doing proper backups comment down below!)
Calculate the size of your current hard drive
Find a Solid-State drive that is compatible with your computer and is slightly larger than your current hard drive (Often times an SSD will be advertised as 500GB and will only be 480GB so be careful and do your research)
Restore/Clone data to SSD (Depending on the type of backup you made in step 1 you might be able to use it to migrate to the SSD. Otherwise, you will need to use a tool like Clonezilla to clone the disks)
Test and Verify SSD
Keep in mind you can use a larger SSD. Just make sure to take use of the unallocated space. Sometimes it is an easy right click and expand, and sometimes it requires moving partitions then expanding.

So, if everything worked properly you should have a noticeably faster computer! Now, what do you do with that extra hard drive? The first thing you need to do is hold on to that hard drive for a while. This way you can be 110% certain that everything is working. Once you are comfortable that your system is working the way you need to you can use this hard drive for several things:

If you have a desktop and an extra bay for an additional hard drive you can use this for extra storage/and or backups (See option 2)
You can buy an external hard drive enclosure and turn the drive into a portable storage device
Keep it as an archive copy for a rainy day

Option 2 Migrate to a smaller SSD (More Difficult option)

You might be wondering “Why would I want to move to a smaller storage device?” That is an excellent question. If you move to a smaller storage device you can use your current larger storage device for just that pure storage. You might also have a laptop that you don’t store large amounts of data on. If this is the case then you can save money by moving to a smaller SSD. Gain speed, storage, and save money? I love the sound of that!

BACKUP!!!! (Seriously backup your system. If you want a guide on doing proper backups comment down below! Yes, we copied and pasted this, it’s that important)
Move your data to a safe location. I understand we already made a backup of your data however; this accomplishes a few things. First, you get a second backup of the data which is never a bad idea especially when migrating to a smaller device. Second, if you bought a new large hard drive as a dedicated storage device for this upgrade process. Then you can save a lot of time by moving the data to this drive now.
Cleanup. Remove all unwanted programs from your computer. Use tools like ccleaner or built-in disk cleaning tools to remove temp files
Shrink your current hard drive. DO NOT PROCEED WITH THIS STEP UNLESS YOU HAVE COMPLETED STEP 1!!! Seriously if something goes wrong with this step you will need to restore from your backup. You can use a tool like minitool partition manager to do this!
Clone current HDD to SSD
Verify SSD will boot and work properly
If you are moving to a smaller SSD to gain speed and save money you are all done!
If in step 2 you moved all your data to the intended destination you should be able to slap that puppy in and map the folders to your liking.
If you are using your old drive as a new storage device you will need to prepare it. This can be done by formatting the device to a blank NTFS disk. Using tools like windows install media, or gparted.
Once your device is prepared it is ready to use. If I were you, I would map my user profile to this disk so things get saved there automatically. I would also create “Program Files” ,“Program Files(x86)”, and “ProgramData” directories so you have install locations for programs you don’t need to run super fast. However, this step is optional.

Conclusion

If you have a slow PC that takes forever to load anything there is a good chance a Solid-State Drive upgrade will fix all your issues. If you are tech savvy you can probably do this process yourself but again BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM. However, you might only be comfortable finding the parts you need or you might not be comfortable period. Don’t worry we got your back. CLICK HERE to schedule a free call back so we can make your computer LIGHTSPEED FAST!

Want in depth guides on how to do anything mentioned in this article? Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below. Make sure to share this article with someone who needs it.