One of the most efficient ways to make a sluggish computer run faster is by switching out your standard spinning platter hard drive (HDD/storage on a computer) for something called a solid state drive (SSD).
What & Where?
A solid state drive reads and processes data on your computer digitally while a standard HDD reads and writes data mechanically. Because an SSD has no moving parts (while an HDD does) and runs via electronic chips, this makes a computer run much faster with an SSD while also being far less likely to fail (AKA losing your precious data).
Surprisingly, despite being an inferior technology, many computers still come with an HDD instead of an SSD. On the Apple side, the iMac product line is an example of new computers still packing an HDD, most of them in the form of a fusion drive.
On the PC side, a huge amount of Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Toshiba computers have HDDs as their storage units. The reason Macs and PCs still use HDD technology is that it is more affordable to produce, albeit much slower and less reliable.
Our Opinion
One of the most common things we see in our service department at The Mac Ranch & The Tech Ranch are failing HDDs. From sluggish starts and extremely slow loading times for programs, to the inability for a computer to boot up at all, an HDD is often the root of the problem.
Upgrading your computer to an SSD is a solid investment. The performance increase can be tenfold and, for many, like operating a new computer.
