Ran Disk Utility from external hd, and it checked out fine, but Etrecheck Report says it's running very slow. Ran Malwarebytes - nothing. Can anything be done to improve the performance/speed of this hard drive, or should it just be replaced?
[Image Edited by Moderator to Remove Personal Information]
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.
No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.
It appears that you do not have a Time Machine backup. If this is the case, you should create one. To start, you need an external hard drive. Here’s a few excellent ones sold by Apple:
You can then follow the steps in this Apple Support article to setup your Time Machine backup: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support. Also, moving forward, I recommend that you use iCloud in addition to Time Machine to sync all your files and photos to all your Apple devices. Although iCloud is not a "true" backup service, iCloud can also act as an emergency off-site backup, but this is why iCloud should be used in addition to Time Machine. Here are some resources on setting up iCloud for Mac:
After you setup iCloud, turn off "Optimize Mac Storage" in System Preferences > Apple ID/iCloud. That way, all changes made to files in iCloud are also backed up to Time Machine. If you have this setting on due to a limited amount of storage on your Mac, that is fine. Just know changes won't be backed up to Time Machine, only iCloud.
Hard drive too slow - The hard drive in this computer is too slow.
The reason your iMac is slow is due to the 5400-rpm hard drive. While this hard drive found in your Mac is perfectly suited to light tasks, such as email, web browsing, etc., for more advanced tasks, and for users who want the maximum performance from their Mac, this hard drive does have its limitations. Luckily, you can use an external SSD as your startup disk to run macOS and all your data from that. It will make your Mac 10 to 30 times faster for storage, and in turn, make your entire Mac system much faster. For more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy, please see: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as your Startup Disk on a Desktop Mac - Apple Community.
Another option is to replace this Mac with a new Apple Silicon Mac: Mac - Apple. If you go this route, it is generally recommended that you purchase 16GB of Memory with the largest SSD that you can afford. You can also use Apple Trade-In to get credit towards a new Mac: Apple Trade In - Apple.
Jack
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities.
No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.
It appears that you do not have a Time Machine backup. If this is the case, you should create one. To start, you need an external hard drive. Here’s a few excellent ones sold by Apple:
You can then follow the steps in this Apple Support article to setup your Time Machine backup: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support. Also, moving forward, I recommend that you use iCloud in addition to Time Machine to sync all your files and photos to all your Apple devices. Although iCloud is not a "true" backup service, iCloud can also act as an emergency off-site backup, but this is why iCloud should be used in addition to Time Machine. Here are some resources on setting up iCloud for Mac:
After you setup iCloud, turn off "Optimize Mac Storage" in System Preferences > Apple ID/iCloud. That way, all changes made to files in iCloud are also backed up to Time Machine. If you have this setting on due to a limited amount of storage on your Mac, that is fine. Just know changes won't be backed up to Time Machine, only iCloud.
Hard drive too slow - The hard drive in this computer is too slow.
The reason your iMac is slow is due to the 5400-rpm hard drive. While this hard drive found in your Mac is perfectly suited to light tasks, such as email, web browsing, etc., for more advanced tasks, and for users who want the maximum performance from their Mac, this hard drive does have its limitations. Luckily, you can use an external SSD as your startup disk to run macOS and all your data from that. It will make your Mac 10 to 30 times faster for storage, and in turn, make your entire Mac system much faster. For more info, instructions, and what external SSD to buy, please see: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as your Startup Disk on a Desktop Mac - Apple Community.
Another option is to replace this Mac with a new Apple Silicon Mac: Mac - Apple. If you go this route, it is generally recommended that you purchase 16GB of Memory with the largest SSD that you can afford. You can also use Apple Trade-In to get credit towards a new Mac: Apple Trade In - Apple.
Jack
The primary reason your HD is slow is because it is a 5400 RPM HD which is the main bottleneck. Your only option to fix that condition is to buy an external SSD (I'd suggest a OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro 1TB SSD Storage Solution & a OWC On the Go Pro Power Adapter ) and connect it to your iMac. Then clone your internal HD (use either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone the internal HD to the SSD.
Finally, open System Preferences - Startup Disk and set the new SSD as the startup drive and then enjoy your fast iMac.
iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2019) Hard Drive Running Slow
