Installed High Sierra due to my MBP having an Intel processor, for Spectre and Meltdown.

I read others and did a SMC/PRAM reset as well as deleting library cache and restarting.

Below is my EtreCheck report.

I understand that most likely I need a new HDD or SSD but I cannot afford it at the moment wondering if there is anything else I can do.


Thank you for everyone's time in reading/replying.



EtreCheck version: 5.1 (5A022)

Report generated: 2019-01-26 10:13:01

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 8:59

Performance: Poor


Problem: Computer is too slow

Description: 

        After clean installing Sierra, decided to clean install High Sierra due to my early 2011 MacBook Pro having an intel processor. After 6 hours it finished installing and now feels sluggish. Clicking on an item or closing an app takes roughly 2-3min. Which is hurting my productivity. I went back and reinstalled Sierra and the sluggishness continued. 


Major Issues:

    Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention. 


    No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

    Failing hard drive - This machine has an older, mechanical hard disk that appears to be failing.


Minor Issues:

    These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems. 


    Upgradeable hard drive - This machine’s hard drive could be replaced with an SSD. This would dramatically improve your machine’s performance.

    Vintage hardware - This machine may be considered vintage.

    32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

    Abnormal shutdown - Your machine shut down abnormally.


Hardware Information:

    MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011) - Vintage!

    MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro8,3

    1 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-2720QM) CPU: 4-core

    16 GB RAM - At maximum

    BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1333 ok

    BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1333 ok

    Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 361


Video Information:

    Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB

    Color LCD 1920 x 1200

    AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 1024 MB


Drives:

    disk0 - TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF 750.16 GB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)

    Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

        disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

        disk0s2 [Core Storage Container] 749.30 GB

            disk1 - M***********D (Journaled HFS+) 748.93 GB (19.17 GB used)

        disk0s3 - Recovery HD (Journaled HFS+) [Recovery] 650 MB


Mounted Volumes:

    disk1 - M***********D 748.93 GB (729.49 GB free)

        Journaled HFS+

        Mount point: /

        Encrypted


Network:

    Interface en0: Ethernet

    Interface fw0: FireWire

    Interface en2: Wi-Fi

        802.11 a/b/g/n

    Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

    Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

        iCloud Quota: 4.97 GB available


System Software:

    macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65) 

    Time since boot: About 7 hours


Security:

    GatekeeperEnabled

    System Integrity ProtectionEnabled


32-bit Applications:

    One 32-bit app


System Launch Agents:

    [Not Loaded] 17 Apple tasks

    [Loaded] 165 Apple tasks

    [Running] 110 Apple tasks

    [Other] One Apple task


System Launch Daemons:

    [Not Loaded] 40 Apple tasks

    [Loaded] 175 Apple tasks

    [Running] 118 Apple tasks

    [Other] 2 Apple tasks


Internet Plug-ins:

    QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-07-04)


Time Machine:

    Time Machine Not Configured!


Performance:

    System Load: 1.15 (1 min ago) 1.06 (5 min ago) 0.94 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 0.37 MB/s

    File system: 124.64 seconds (timed out)

    Write speed: 7 MB/s

    Read speed: 7 MB/s


Top Processes by CPU:

    Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

    EtreCheckPro 14.12 % (Etresoft, Inc.)

    WindowServer 9.88 % (Apple)

    kernel_task 0.96 % (Apple)

    SystemUIServer 0.06 % (Apple)

    logd 0.04 % (Apple)


Top Processes by Memory:

    Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

    kernel_task 1.08 GB (Apple)

    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (18) 676 MB (Apple)

    EtreCheckPro 582 MB (Etresoft, Inc.)

    com.apple.WebKit.Networking (18) 375 MB (Apple)

    mds_stores 213 MB (Apple)


Top Processes by Network Use:

    Process Input / Output (Source - Location)

    mDNSResponder 256 KB / 98 KB (Apple)

    netbiosd 41 KB / 60 KB (Apple)

    apsd 26 KB / 11 KB (Apple)

    CalendarAgent 10 KB / 4 KB (Apple)

    cloudd 8 KB / 2 KB (Apple)


Virtual Memory Information:

    Available RAM 11.36 GB

    Free RAM 8.40 GB

    Used RAM 4.64 GB

    Cached files 2.97 GB

    Swap Used 0 B


Software Installs (past 30 days):

    Install Date Name (Version)

    2019-01-25 Gatekeeper Configuration Data (160)

    2019-01-25 MRTConfigData (1.38)

    2019-01-25 XProtectPlistConfigData (2101)


Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

    2019-01-26 08:26:20 quicklookd.app Crash

        /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Versions/A/Resources/quicklookd.app


        quicklookd seems struck trying to quit, crashing

        abort() called



    2019-01-26 02:51:03 Last Shutdown Cause: 3 - Hard shutdown



End of report