Laptop slow should I backup and factory reset?

My Laptop has been running slower and slower lately and I was thinking it was just time to get a new one. Until I heard that backing up my files and doing a factory reset could restore my Laptop's functionality.

I'm not sure if I should because I'm scared I'll lose a lot of my data.

I've purchased an external hard drive but, I'm not sure how to backup anything.

Is a back up all I need to do or do I need to copy specific files onto my external hard drive before I reset?

dcriggins said:

My Laptop has been running slower and slower lately and I was thinking it was just time to get a new one. Until I heard that backing up my files and doing a factory reset could restore my Laptop's functionality.

I'm not sure if I should because I'm scared I'll lose a lot of my data.

I've purchased an external hard drive but, I'm not sure how to backup anything.

Is a back up all I need to do or do I need to copy specific files onto my external hard drive before I reset?

It depends on which data you are afraid of losing. We recommend using Macrium Reflect Free here:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

It will create an image of your entire hard drive or SSD and save that image in one file onto your external hard drive. Then you would clean install Windows 10, re-install Macrium Reflect Free, and then you can mount the image file and retrieve your data files from it, such as videos, pictures, documents, etc.

What you will lose:
Any saved passwords for websites stored from your web browser
Any programs/apps that you have installed, and your licenses for them. You will have to re-install your apps and programs and re-license them with any activation codes you may need.

And heck, if it all goes bad, then you can restore your system to the way it previously was by restoring the entire backup image instead of just mounting it and pulling your data files from it.

RolandJS said:

And, if possible, reseat the memory modules, oxidation of the contacts could be adding to the situation. I'm doing likewise this coming work week.

I had a bad memory stick that was preventing me from doing an image backup and verification. Was also causing BSODs every so often. Well....not sure if the 2 sticks were bad or just not compatible with the 2 other sticks. I had 2 generics from ebay installed with 2 from Crucial. I replaced the 2 generics with 2 more Crucials so all 4 sticks were the same make/model and no more problems and I do think the computer is faster overall.

A slower notebook can be troubleshooted with
clean boot,
Windows performance recorder,
process monitor,
etc.

An in place upgrade repair can be done as a trial and error to see if it fixes the slowness.

Alternatives are a backup image with clean install as already posted or reset with save files.

If you don't want to use any third party software you can copy and paste the users folder to another drive, then clean install and restore the folder. It takes longer but can be done overnight.