Success!!!
I have been struggling over a month now with my computer. My hubby, an IT professional, said that Microsoft is not going to be supporting Windows 10 much longer. So l decided to finally upgrade to Windows 11. Ever since, it had been sluggish to respond and would freeze randomly. It made it hard to want to use it.
It really felt like that at times.
But it wasn't the first time I've had problems with this computer. I've reinstalled Windows 10 multiple times and it would still get buggy and slow and problematic. I had wondered if it was a hard drive problem and looked into upgrading to a SSD. Turns out not only can my computer handle it, but Dell has an SSD for this model. I finally bought it last week and it arrived today!
I needed a little help from the hubby (an IT pro whose built multiple PCs from scratch) to make sure I had found where it goes and how to pull the old hard drive. I got it installed. I make the Windows installer USB and made sure everything on the computer was backed up. Then I turned it off, unplugged the old hard drive, and rebooted.
Just installing Windows went smoother than it has gone recently. I've moved files from backup onto the drive with no problems. I think this finally fixed the problem!! I think I can actually do stuff, like work on my upcoming conference presentation and my dissertation, after I get home from work! I've been letting the couch claim me because the thought of trying to do anything on the computer was just depressing.
I mean, I got Windows installing and actually felt like working on the mountain of dishes I've let pile up. If that's not a sign of motivation and feeling better, I don't know what is.
