I think the title says it all. Apps load slowly, lag when I use them. Searching? HA!
Despite what the EtreCheckPro report says, I do back up to an external drive. Just wasn't connected when I ran the report.
Thank you for your help!
Here's the hardware specs:
iMac late 2015
Processor: 3.2 GHz Quad-Core
Memory: 8GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Big Sur 11.2.3
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
I agree it's a dying drive. The ata is here:
Performance:
System Load: 1.56 (1 min ago) 1.73 (5 min ago) 1.69 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 8.80 MB/s
File system: 122.02 seconds (timed out)
Write speed: 52 MB/s
Read speed: 35 MB/s
The same spec drive in a healthy 2011 iMac posts this in the same test:
Performance:
System Load: 1.62 (1 min ago) 1.67 (5 min ago) 1.87 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 0.05 MB/s
File system: 38.28 seconds
Write speed: 112 MB/s
Read speed: 91 MB/s
...and that one still feels slow.
Back up NOW!
The low-cost, no-need-to-open-the-computer option that gives a nice performance boost is an external USB3 solid-state drive set as the boot volume. If the drive enclosure is USB3 and the SSD inside is rated SATA 6GB/sec (both very important to seeing improvement) then the read/write scores will be around 400MB/sec and the computer will feel much faster to boot and launch apps.
👉🏻 For a desktop computer like the iMac, AVOID external SSDs that are bus-powered—they lack a separate power supply and will not be as reliable as a self-powered drive with independent power supply. This will be your boot drive, and you want maximum reliability and no low-power issues.
You CLONE†—not copy— the current internal drive to the external SSD, then use Disk Utility (comes with macOS) to set the external SSD as the startup volume with System Preferences > Startup Disk.
† — see https://bombich.com
I agree it's a dying drive. The ata is here:
Performance:
System Load: 1.56 (1 min ago) 1.73 (5 min ago) 1.69 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 8.80 MB/s
File system: 122.02 seconds (timed out)
Write speed: 52 MB/s
Read speed: 35 MB/s
The same spec drive in a healthy 2011 iMac posts this in the same test:
Performance:
System Load: 1.62 (1 min ago) 1.67 (5 min ago) 1.87 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O speed: 0.05 MB/s
File system: 38.28 seconds
Write speed: 112 MB/s
Read speed: 91 MB/s
...and that one still feels slow.
Back up NOW!
The low-cost, no-need-to-open-the-computer option that gives a nice performance boost is an external USB3 solid-state drive set as the boot volume. If the drive enclosure is USB3 and the SSD inside is rated SATA 6GB/sec (both very important to seeing improvement) then the read/write scores will be around 400MB/sec and the computer will feel much faster to boot and launch apps.
👉🏻 For a desktop computer like the iMac, AVOID external SSDs that are bus-powered—they lack a separate power supply and will not be as reliable as a self-powered drive with independent power supply. This will be your boot drive, and you want maximum reliability and no low-power issues.
You CLONE†—not copy— the current internal drive to the external SSD, then use Disk Utility (comes with macOS) to set the external SSD as the startup volume with System Preferences > Startup Disk.
† — see https://bombich.com
If you go the external SSD route, see: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.
-Jack
The hard drive is failing.
Thank you. Any brand recommendations?
Take it to your local Apple Authorized Service Provider to be serviced!
Painfully slow iMac: EtreCheckPro report included
