FWIW, I did it! I realized that I had an appropriate drive to clone the SSD from…

[sekker]

My number one maintenance item I do when helping a long-time Mac user is have them clean up their desktop.

It can be a dramatic and instant speed boost.

He has over 120GB on his desktop. It's a good bet that moving all of that stuff to his document folder would help.

[PeterW]

Umm, his desktop folder IS his document folder - the two are identical in size. Also his Applications folder has over 90 GB in it. Go check your own App folder and see how large it is.

[bazookaman]

PeterW wrote:
Also his Applications folder has over 90 GB in it. Go check your own App folder and see how large it is.

That DOES seem a bit excessive.