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How to make your PC faster for free or cheap


Note: I'm not responsible for any kind of damages caused by your actions or my advices. This is just an article with some tips for you to have an overview of your options when having an issue with a computer. 

A while ago, I saw an advertisement about a USB Stick that claims to make your PC run like a new one while I was browsing YouTube. The product looked like a basic SanDisk USB Drive and was connected to an older HP Laptop from about 2009. 
First it seemed like a scam and I was ready to report it. But a few seconds in, I noticed that in a comparison between the Notebook with and without the stick, that the PCs had totally different environments running.
At this point I was pretty sure of what was going on here.

What was happening?

The ad shows a ferly old notebook running Windows Vista to compare the speed against the same notebook with the promoted product plugged in. The basic Vista Notebook is struggling to open up a video without the Stick. Meanwhile the notebook running with the USB Stick was not. It was running very fast like someone used a faster storage device to access the files of.
And this is what they actually did in this case.

I have seen lots of notebooks behaving like the HP notebook with Vista did. There is a very simple thing to do when your PC is running extremely slow: Check the Hard Drive, because they fail easily on lots of notebooks. Old Seagate drive are very common to failure as I have experienced.

They simply used a Linux-distro that was installed on the rebranded USB Stick and skipped the internal HDD when booting up.
This is indeed a very convenient and effective way to fix your computer when someone is too unexperienced to replace a Hard drive by themselves and create a bootable install image.

Keep in mind that this method deletes all files and could damage data, electronic or your own health, when done wrong. Do it on your own risk.

But replacing an HDD with a new one or even with a more reliable SSD is not hard. If someone wants to do it by themselves, they should look into forums with the help of Google. It is a very easy and reliable solution.

Costs

An SSD can be bought for around 50$ and the tools are most likely already available to you. If not buy some or borrow them from someone you know. Prices vary by the storage space you chose.
It's important to understand that you are ultimately removing all your data with an HDD replacement. That means that you need to install a new operating system. I would suggest you to try out Linux-distros like Ubuntu or Elementary OS.
If you rely on Windows and have it already installed, then please document the Product Key and the Windows Version you are running. You can find them on the bottom on older laptops.
To create a bootable USB Drive, use your chosen operating system and research it with your favorite search engine. You will need a. USB Drive. Those can cost about 10$
If you have a Product Key or want to switch to Linux, then this the cost of the operating system will be free.
It will come to a total of 60$.

If you don't want to get a new laptop just to browse your twitter feed and doing some spreadsheet work, then this option is the way to go. 

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