Slow HDD as per Entrecheck

iMac is very slow and doing any development work here is a headache. I want to replace the HDD. Please let me know if that is a feasible option or not. I do not want to buy a new. Is there a better alternative. Below is the details of entry check report:

EtreCheck version: 5.7.2 (5247)

Report generated: 2023-07-27 22:43:40

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 8:07

Performance: Below Average

Sandbox: Enabled

Full drive access: Disabled

Problem: Computer is too slow

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

Hard drive too slow - The hard drive in this computer is too slow.

Runaway process - A process is using a large percentage of your CPU.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed that could be adware and should be reviewed.

Hardware Information:

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)

iMac Model: iMac18,2

3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 (i5-7400) CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM - Upgradeable by an Apple Authorized Service Provider

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM 2400

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM 2400

Video Information:

Radeon Pro 555 - VRAM: 2 GB

iMac (built-in) 4096 x 2304

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

Performance:

System Load: 1.96 (1 min ago) 2.71 (5 min ago) 2.49 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 7.80 MB/s

File system: 69.12 seconds

Write speed: 30 MB/s

Read speed: 35 MB/s

CPU Usage Snapshot:

Type Overall

System: 9 %

User: 20 %

Idle: 71 %

Top Processes Snapshot by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

Other processes 96.15 % (?)

EtreCheck 15.89 % (App Store)

Virtual Memory Information:

Physical RAM: 8 GB

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 11:09 AM

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

216,464 points

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 11:45 AM

Rerun Etrecheck and copy and post the report according to the following instructions:

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

But it does look like your drive is failing. You would be best served by getting an external SSD, cloning your internal drive to it with Carbon Copy Cloner and boot and run from the SSD.

I recommend drives from OWC (MacSales.com) as they have proven reliability, excellent customer support and warranties.

You should contact OWC's customer support and get their recommendation for the SSD model that would best suit your iMac model, work requirements and budget. I have several external SSDs from OWC and typically get the following read and write speeds:

And, when you upgrade your iMac you can take the SSD with you easily.

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Slow HDD as per Entrecheck

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