LR4? Malware? Old age?

my girlfriends similar MBP had similar issues last year and turned out it was a failing hard drive. It was a slow fail. It's been doing it again lately for the last month plus, Apple store says hard drive is going again. She just ordered a new SSD which will be installed today. I'm thinking that will solve her slowness issues. I'll try to report back after the new drive install.