My iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) beach balling and slow running

+1 on den.thed's advice, run DriveDX on the internal HD NOT the Fusion Drive or the SSD. The Achilles heal on your machine is the HD. If DriveDX finds ANY errors then that means the HD is failing which is REALLY REALLY bad as you are operating this machine with ZERO backup. That means all of your data is at very high risk of being lost forever, including photos, music, movies, important financial data, paid for apps, etc...

Operating any computer without a daily backup strategy is a 100% guarantee that you will lose data. At a bare minimum you should be using Time Machine, if somehow you are not aware of Time Machine it is included in Mac OS, you can learn about it by clicking Back up your Mac with Time Machine. Time Machine only require an External Hard Disk, any will do however many experienced users on these forums prefer the https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-mercury-elite-pro due to it's high quality, reasonable costs and the high level of support from the vendor.

My recommendation is for you to backup as your #1 priority and then address the health of the internal HD.

Finally, if the HD is failing you have options, which include replacing the computer with a new model. If you don't want to do that or if finances are in the way, you have a lot of options available. So just let us know a) does the DriveDX report indicate the HD is failing and b) whether you want to replace the computer or repair it so we can offer some options and opinions. Remember a 2017 is now 7+ years old and while not obsolete quite yet, it is getting dangerously close to obsolescence.

If you want to salvage the computer your best option is to take the Fusion Drive including the SSD and HD out of the equation. The way to do that is to go to an external SSD which is doable and not horribly expensive. Instructions for the install are in How to setup an external SSD as your startup disk and the SSD I would recommend is the OWC Envoy Pro SX.

However considering the computer's age, you also may want to sell, donate or give away the 2017 and replace it with a more up-to-date Silicon based Mac as a 2017 will likely be deemed obsolete later this. year. If you decide to take this route you have a LOT of options available to including brand new, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, MB Air, MB Pro etc. Also you can buy an Apple refurbished Silicon based Mac, all of the Silicon based Macs will far outperform your existing box.

Again, though remember your #1 priority should be backing up the data on your existing machine before it fails, because once that HD fails, your data is gone and I mean GONE!

Yea' that is a common problem with the 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drive models.

Give an external SSD a go, as per > Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community

Then if you are not happy with that, you may be able to find an Apple Authorized Service Provider that is willing to replace the HDD or upgrade the HDD to an SSD. To find a local AASP, go to > Find Locations

Let me try this again. The forums software belched when I tried to post, doing a partial, and then I reported the wrong one as a dupe. This is the full post:

-------------------------------------

Welcome!

After reading the report, I believe you may have a software issue not showing in the report. Your drive is running at good speeds:

Performance:

  System Load: 1.70 (1 min ago) 1.69 (5 min ago) 1.67 (15 min ago)

  Nominal I/O usage: 2.09 MB/s

  File system: 58.63 seconds

  Write speed: 764 MB/s

  Read speed: 2802 MB/s

At the time of the test, your drive speeds were spot-on the nominals for that version of a healthy Fusion drive. In that iMac model typical speeds should be Writes between 600-900MB/sec and Reads over 2000MB/sec, This real-world  sample is from a healthy 2017 iMac 5K with the same drive specs as yours:

Performance:

    System Load: 0.77 (1 min ago) 0.65 (5 min ago) 0.80 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 0.58 MB/s 👈🏻

    File system: 35.69 seconds 👈🏻

    Write speed: 766 MB/s

    Read speed: 2687 MB/s

What differs are the Nominal I/O speed and File System. Not sure the those results imply. I know that on failing mech drive, the File System values rise to 120 seconds where Etrecheck terminates the test, indicating a failing drive, Yours is higher than I expect, but far from falling into the abyss.

It appears we are missing some useful info from that Etrecheck report. Did you edit it? 

There should sections on log-in and launch items that is not showing in yours. That is often where we find the definitive clues to slow running in ohterwise healthy Macs. For example, this from your report:

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

  Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

  com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (71) 16.43 GB (Apple) ⚠️

  MTLCompilerService (136) 6.83 GB (Apple)

  EtreCheckPro 927 MB (Etresoft, Inc.)

  com.apple.WebKit.Networking 368 MB (Apple)

  Safari 361 MB (Apple)

could seriously slow your computer and suggests something—likely software— affecting Safari (WebKit is an underlying technology of Safari). But we don't have the report sections that usually show what the might be/

If you edited the report PLEASE repost it without redactions. EtreCheck is designed to NOT reveal any personnel information. If your did NOT edit out anything, that alone could be a clue as well.

Allan

You're welcome.

I recommend just getting a decent external SSD to use as a boot drive, then start saving up for a replacement iMac or Mac mini and display in the near future.

Check the health of both SSD and HDD using DriveDX

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Your drive:

Performance:

System Load: 1.70 (1 min ago) 1.69 (5 min ago) 1.67 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 2.09 MB/s

File system: 58.63 seconds

Write speed: 764 MB/s

Read speed: 2802 MB/s

At the time of the test, your drive speeds were on the nominals for that version of a Fusion drive. In that iMac model typical speeds are Writes 600-900MB?sec and Reads over 2000MB/sec, This real sample is from a healthy iMac with the same drive specs and usrs. the sma emor as tyours:

Performance:

    System Load: 0.77 (1 min ago) 0.65 (5 min ago) 0.80 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 0.58 MB/s

    File system: 35.69 seconds

    Write speed: 766 MB/s

    Read speed: 2687 MB/s

Are you sure you get it from apple or it from random store ? Because if it from apple you can just upgrade it or you should erase all content and settings