Q: Slowing down...(includes etrecheck)

Is there a better/less draining alternative?

Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac

As for online backup, there are many options. I've never used most of them, but from what I've seen on this site, "Backblaze" seems to be one of the worst. The developer has a bad reputation.

Isn't this virus software necessary?

Software from an untrustworthy source

• Software of any kind is distributed via BitTorrent. or Usenet, or on a website that also distributes pirated music or movies.
• Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, doesn't come directly from the developer’s website.
• Rogue websites such as Softonic and CNET Download distribute free applications that have been packaged in a superfluous "installer."
• The software is advertised by means of spam or intrusive web ads.

Software that is plainly illegal or does something illegal

• Software that you would otherwise have to pay for is "cracked" or "free."
• An application helps you to infringe copyright, for instance by circumventing the copy protection on commercial software, or saving streamed media for reuse without permission.

Conditional or unsolicited offers from strangers

Unexpected events

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!!!!!H0TBABEZ4U!!!!!!!.AVI♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.exe

As far as your remote server backup app, I would NOT solely rely on these "cloud" services for important things like data backups of your important data.

You should have another local backup strategy.

The best backup strategy, IMO, is using external hard drive/s and make bootable clones/duplicates of your Mac's internal hard drive to external drives.

You have two choices for data cloning software...Carbon Copy Cloner OR Super Duper.

I, also, prefer FireWire or Thunderbolt external drives over USB.

You get the best of both worlds this way. You get a complete backup plus and bootable external drive to use in case something goes wrong with your main system on the internal drive.

The utility of anti-virus software is the subject of much debate here, and honestly, you'll have a hard time finding a truly unbiased answer. In the end, it's your choice, based on your desires, needs and capabilities. See my Mac Malware Guide.

Backblaze is not something I have a lot of familiarity with. Linc says that it is known to cause problems, but he also badmouths all anti-virus software unilaterally, which I strongly disagree with. That needs to be your decision. Note, though, that even if you keep Backblaze, you should not rely on that as your sole source of backups. You should have at least one Time Machine (or other similar) backup on an external hard drive... preferably more than one, with at least one stored off-site.

Finally, I would say that your system is so heavily loaded down with third-party software - quite a bit of it junk - that the easist way you're going to get things working well again is to erase the hard drive and start over from scratch. After doing that, you will need to avoid installing a lot of the junk.

If you do that, you may not need the additional RAM that your machine needs so desperately in its current state.

Just to clarify Thomas' comment about "badmouthing" anti-virus software, I am not the only one who does it. You wrote, in regard to ESET:

I know it slows down my computer considerably.

So there's no argument here about whether ESET is doing harm. It is. The argument is about whether it does any good to offset the harm. See whether you can find a documented example, anywhere on the World-Wide Web, of a case in which ESET has prevented a malware infection on a computer running OS X. Just one. If you can do that, I will gladly concede the point.

 

Just to clarify Thomas' comment about "badmouthing" anti-virus software

 

I merely mentioned that to point out your often overly-harsh views on such things, as a means of pointing out that it may not be the best choice to compromise a backup strategy simply because you said the Backblaze program has been "implicated in system slowdowns."

See whether you can find a documented example, anywhere on the World-Wide Web, of a case in which ESET has prevented a malware infection on a computer running OS X.

Let's not go down that tired old road again. I can certainly provide you with actual copies of malware that OS X will allow to slip right past the built-in security, while ESET will detect them. That does not mean that I endorse ESET, and in fact I agree with you that it needs to be removed in this case. It just means that this issue is not as black and white as you like to tell people.

I guess more clarification of Thomas' comments is called for. My suggestion that you remove "Backblaze" was not merely based on what I've learned from other cases. It was based on the fact that the test you ran directly showed that a "Backblaze" background process was using excessive CPU cycles. Thomas does not know that, because he either didn't read the test results or doesn't understand them. That doesn't prevent him from questioning my advice, but it should help you to decide how much weight to give to his opinion.

Actually, that particular test shows only a tiny instant in time. We do not know what was going on at that time. Perhaps Backblaze was in the middle of doing a backup, and this was a momentary spike. Then again, perhaps the CPU usage was abnormal for a more lengthy period, because the other aspects of the system were abnormal (such as massively overloaded RAM) and this was causing significant issues for Backblaze.

This does not justify telling the OP to remove Backblaze unconditionally, with no explanations, especially when this may very well be the only backup system in use.

MichelPM wrote:

 

If you really feel like you have to have Antivirus software on your Mac, the least invasive ones are

...

VirusBarrierExpress(found on the Mac App Store)

You should know that Intego has pulled VirusBarrierExress as well as the Plus version from it's product line . See VirusBarrier removed from App Store for details.

Thanks for the heads up on that.

They just must have done this, recently.

MichelPM wrote:

 

They just must have done this, recently.

Yes, it first came to our attention four or five days ago.

1.) I will take care of backing up to an external drive via firewire. (I used to do this, but it took forever via USB.) Then, I will cancel Backblaze.

Be sure to take backups very seriously... one backup really isn't enough. I've seen far too many cases where someone erased their hard drive, or had it die, only to find that there was something wrong with their backup and it wasn't recoverable. You can maintain more than one backup with Time Machine:

"Rotating" Time Machine backup disks

It's also generally a good idea to use more than one program for making backups as well.

My personal strategy is to use Time Machine with a Time Capsule for frequent backups, and to use Carbon Copy Cloner to maintain "clones" of my system and data on several external hard drives. I keep one of these hard drives in a safe deposit box at the bank, rotating the drives periodically to make sure the one at the bank stays reasonably up-to-date.

Using online backups, like Backblaze, is a good idea, if you can manage it and if the software behaves itself. In my case, my data is too large to make this a practical solution.

I am new to this, so if I did this wrong - sorry.  Not techy

My Macbook Pro is running really slow.  I saw a post to do etre check so I did that.  This is what it said.  What do I do now?????

EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)

Report generated April 18, 2015 at 2:07:06 PM PDT

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Technical Specifications)

    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

    1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

    4 GB RAM Upgradeable

        BANK 0/DIMM0

            2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

        BANK 1/DIMM0

            2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 338

Video Information: ℹ️

    Intel HD Graphics 4000

        Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software: ℹ️

    OS X 10.9.5 (13F1066) - Time since boot: 8 days 2:49:8

Disk Information: ℹ️

    APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500.11 GB)

        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (347.68 GB free)

        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>  [Recovery]: 650 MB

    HL-DT-ST DVDRW  GS41N 

USB Information: ℹ️

    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

    Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

    Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

        /System/Library/Extensions

    [not loaded]    com.wdc.driver.1394.64.10.9 (1.0.1 - SDK 10.9) [Click for support]

    [not loaded]    com.wdc.driver.USB.64.10.9 (1.0.1 - SDK 10.9) [Click for support]

Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️

    [failed]    com.apple.wdhelper.plist

Launch Agents: ℹ️

    [not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Click for support]

    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]

User Launch Agents: ℹ️

    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

    [loaded]    com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]

    [loaded]    com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist [Click for support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

    iTunesHelper    Application  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

    AdobeResourceSynchronizer    Application Hidden (/Applications/Adobe Reader.app/Contents/Support/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)

    Dropbox    Application  (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

    Screenleap    Application  (/Applications/Screenleap.app)

    WDDriveUtilityHelper    Application  (/Applications/WD Drive Utilities.app/Contents/WDDriveUtilityHelper.app)

    Google Chrome    Application Hidden (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

    AdobeAAMDetect: Version: AdobeAAMDetect 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.09 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.41.0.0 - SDK 10.8 [Click for support]

    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.8 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.41.0.0 - SDK 10.8 [Click for support]

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

    CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 [Click for support]

    WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

    ScreenleapPlugin_1.0.0: Version: 1.0.0 - SDK 10.9 [Click for support]

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

    Pin It Button

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

    Flash Player  [Click for support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

    Auto backup: YES

    Volumes being backed up:

        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 151.57 GB

    Destinations:

        My Passport for Mac [Local]

        Total size: 999.83 GB

        Total number of backups: 0

        Oldest backup: -

        Last backup: -

        Size of backup disk: Adequate

            Backup size 999.83 GB > (Disk used 151.57 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

        12%    mds

         4%    WindowServer

         1%    AdobeReader

         0%    Google Chrome

         0%    Microsoft Word

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

    258 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

    116 MB    Safari

    103 MB    Finder

    90 MB    Microsoft PowerPoint

    86 MB    Google Chrome

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

    107 MB    Free RAM

    937 MB    Active RAM

    846 MB    Inactive RAM

    761 MB    Wired RAM

    11.63 GB    Page-ins

    660 MB    Page-outs

gongfy wrote:

 

I am new to this, so if I did this wrong - sorry.  Not techy

Then allow me to give you a little advise.

You are certainly welcome to read through older discussions to see if there is any advise that can be applied to your situation, but it's normally a bad idea to post a "me too" if you weren't able to use the information already here. Best to start a new discussion with a more complete description of the problem so that troubleshooters will notice your posting and arrive more quickly.

Since this problem is already marked as solved, most of the people here will probably have stopped following it and the only new people that show up will be those with the same issues, not those that can help you.

Next, although I find EtreCheck to be useful in some cases, not everybody likes it, so you are certainly encouraged to use it for your own analysis, but hold off posting here until asked.

But most important is for you to describe your issue(s) in much greater detail, illustrating with screen-shots if that will help us understand. Just saying "My Macbook Pro is running really slow" doesn't tell us much of anything. What is running slow? Is it just your browser or are other applications involved? Is the Internet slow for you? Are you using WiFi? Do you see the same thing when in Safe Mode? In a second user account?

That said, nothing in your EtreCheck posting jumps out as being a quick solution, other than you are trying to get by with only 4GB of RAM. You should have noted that most of the recommendations to the Original Poster (OP) were to consider increasing to 8GB.  That certainly does not apply to everybody, but if you are the type of user that likes to keep a lot of applications running all the time, it would probably apply to you.

The other recommendation is to uninstall the Western Digital driver software you have as it's not necessary and has been known to cause issues. I've been told that these instructions will take care of that.

Thank you so much!  I couldn't figure out how to start a new post - which is why I ended up replying.  I guess I will have to research that further.  And to answer your question - EVERYTHING is slow - and I am using wifi.  I have high speed internet through Comcast.  I am new to Mac - have always had a PC.  I have heard I need to upgrade RAM and will probably do that.  I am going to follow the uninstall directions for WD in the meantime and see if that helps.  I am currently working on a project and am under an intensive time-bind, which is part of the problem.  All of this takes time - and I don't have any   Thanks again for your help.