SSD fried?

Built this computer back in 2015 (second one in the last 7 years), and installed my first SSD - which has been wonderful! However, about two weeks ago it start taking ten minutes to boot and repairs drive C.

To be fair this computer was used throughout college while also playing crazy games on the side. I have a mechanical drive installed but it has always been used for back up.

Anyways, I want to purchase a new SSD but not sure about what options are available. Do I have to go a fresh install of windows? OR is there a way to save time and effort without losing what games and files are already on this computer?

Any help would be much appreciated.

You can clone/mirror? the drive but if it’s failing it might get corrupted in the transfer. My Samsung came with software that let me do that.

I would get a 500+ gig SSD. Newegg. com. Has a Crucial 960gb for $86,. Samsung 860 1tb at various retailers for $130.

I would just reinstall everything fresh so you know it will be good and if using Windows 10 is make a bootable USB. Google can help there with how to.