I am in spinning beachball purgatory. Memory pressure in Activity Monitor stays in green during operation. Time machine has been unable to back up for a long time. Is there anything I can do to to make this machine useful again? Apps do eventually open and work gets done but it takes forever. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. thanks. Here are the specifications:
iMac 21.5″ 4K
+1 to Old Toad.
Performance:
Write speed: 51 MB/s - ⚠️
Read speed: 50 MB/s - ⚠️
Your USB 3-equipped Mac with a hard disk or Fusion Drive can have improved system performance by connecting to an external solid-state drive (also known as an SSD).
An external SSD as your startup disk can give your Mac additional performance for system responsiveness, apps, startup, and more. An SSD will make your Mac 10 to 40 times faster for storage, and in turn, make your entire Mac faster and more capable.
After an external SSD is setup, you can expect read and write speeds to be near 900MB/s as long as you use an external SSD that is up to those specifications.
To learn more, see Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community.
Jack
+1 to Old Toad.
Performance:
Write speed: 51 MB/s - ⚠️
Read speed: 50 MB/s - ⚠️
Your USB 3-equipped Mac with a hard disk or Fusion Drive can have improved system performance by connecting to an external solid-state drive (also known as an SSD).
An external SSD as your startup disk can give your Mac additional performance for system responsiveness, apps, startup, and more. An SSD will make your Mac 10 to 40 times faster for storage, and in turn, make your entire Mac faster and more capable.
After an external SSD is setup, you can expect read and write speeds to be near 900MB/s as long as you use an external SSD that is up to those specifications.
To learn more, see Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community.
Jack
First, just to make you aware that the iMac you purchased was the slowest Mac Apple offered at the time of purchase: 8 GB RAM and a 5400 rpm hard drive.
I don't see any of the usual suspects. However, you haven't rebooted in 2 days. It is beneficial to the performance to reboot at least every other day to clean out temporary system and application cache and swap files.
Your read and write speeds seem a bit low:
Write speed: 51 MB/s
Read speed: 50 MB/s
Your best bet for increasing general speed would be to get and external SSD, clone your boot drive to it with Carbon Copy Cloner , boot from it and run. You can expect speeds of at least the following:
That's 6 to 7x what you're experiencing now.
Sorry Jack. It is an SSD - Lacie Mobile drive secure. I also installed the CCC - 6 App and backed up everything on it.
I'm sorry to say, but there's no version of the LaCie Mobile SSD Secure in a 5 TB capacity. I believe you have the standard LaCie Drive Secure that utilizes a mechanical hard disk.
In order to see a performance increase, I'd recommend you purchase the SSD Secure: LaCie 500GB Mobile SSD Secure USB-C Drive - Gray - Apple.
Jack
I purchased a 5TB external. when I formatted it I selected to use it as my backup as my mac backup is full. Can I also download Ventura OS to the same external drive and use it as the startup as you recommended?
Regrettably, no. Your new 5TB external hard disk uses the same mechanical technology as the internal Apple disk, so you won't notice a performance difference.
To see increased performance for system responsiveness, apps, startup, and more, you'll need an external solid state drive (also known as an SSD).
Jack
Additional comment. I ran the Etrecheck diagnostic and the only major finding is "hard drive too slow".
Minor issues:
Clean up There are orphan files that could be removed. Review
Unsigned files There are unsigned software files installed. These files could be old, incompatible, and cause problems. They should be reviewed. Review
System modifications There are a large number of system modifications running in the background. Review
Limited permissions More information may be available with Full Disk Access. Review
Kernel extensions present This computer has kernel extensions that may not work in the future. Review
Sharing enabled This computer has sharing services enabled that could be a security risk. Review
Any suggestions?
Welcome!
Please upload the entire report: How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community.
Jack
I purchased a 5TB external. when I formatted it I selected to use it as my backup as my mac backup is full. Can I also download Ventura OS to the same external drive and use it as the startup as you recommended? Do I need to create a "bootable installer?
Thank you gentlemen. Will follow your advice.
Rick
Sorry Jack. It is an SSD - Lacie Mobile drive secure. I also installed the CCC - 6 App and backed up everything on it. Still not sure about installing Ventura and using it as the startup disc.
iMac running slowly.
