Desperate for Help: Backing Up Game Saves and Installing Linux on My Struggling Laptop

Hey everyone! I'm really in a bind here. I've moved all my images, videos, and documents to a new SSD, but now I'm trying to back up my game save data from Steam. It's such a mess and honestly, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. My ASUS ROG Strix G614JU is having major issues—it's super slow, taking about 20 seconds to even see the lock screen, apps are crashing randomly, and I'm stuck on an endless update loop. Some apps can't connect to the internet, and my browser, Brave, is really lagging. I want to wipe my system, install something more user-friendly, and just regain control. Ideally, I'd like to have this all sorted out in the next few days since my laptop might entirely give out. Any advice on how to backup those game files, wipe my system, and install a suitable operating system that works well with my hardware?