Change where some programmes are installed to

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Level 1

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Change where some programmes are installed to

Hello, I’m wondering if anyone can help me, please. I’ve been a lifetime Windows user but my new job requires me to use a mac. Im not all that technical either so please take that into consideration.

The imac is from late 2014, 32gb and running Big Sur.

The problem is the iMac is painfully slow and always says its full.

When ived looked into it there's a handful of programmes taking up a lot of the memory. The iMac is fitted with two hard drives. A 121 GB flash drive that runs the system and apps and a 1TB Sata Disk that doesn’t have much on it

Is there a way to uninstall some apps (Office and Adobe) from the Flash Drive and then reinstall onto the Sata Disk?

Many thanks in advance

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Mar 22, 2024 2:05 AM

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Answer 1

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,726 points

Mar 22, 2024 10:58 AM in response to xxspanner

The iMac is fitted with two hard drives. A 121 GB flash drive that runs the system and apps and a 1TB Sata Disk that doesn’t have much on it

You have described Apple's Fusion (hybrid) drive. A small SSD and a larger SATA mechanical hard drive are software-linked to create unified storage that is easily 6-10X faster that a Mech drive alone, and only marginally slower that blade SSD performance...

...if it has not been messed with.

Unneeded or ill-advised reinstallation of the OS can result in "splitting" the Fusion drive—its two components loose track of each other—and performance plummets to glacial speeds as you have described. A properly functioning Fusion show up as one drive to the user.

This Apple article covers a split Fusion drive, how to check for a split, and how to correct it:

How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support

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Change where some programmes are installed to

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