I bought a 2019 MacBook for a good price but it is very slow. I have run an etrecheck which I will post below. Can I ask, do I need to replace the hard drive? What would you recommend? Is there a way I can take the images saved on the hard drive and put it on a new hard drive? Would a SSD be best?
iMac 21.5″, macOS 15.1
This:
Drives:
disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)
Performance:
Write speed: 27 MB/s
Read speed: 43 MB/s
That model year iMac is notorious for poor performance with that 5400 rpm hdd. The drive speeds shown in your report are abysmal.
Yes, the internal drive can be replaced with an SSD but the task requires "advanced" technical skill.
It would be much easier and less risky to the iMac to install macOS on an external SSD and then boot and operate the Mac from that. Easy setup, vastly improved performance. And when you tire of the computer, dump it but keep the drive for use with the next one - not necessarily as a startup drive because it wouldn't be necessary.
Install macOS on an external storage device and use it as a startup disk - Apple Support
This:
Drives:
disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E632 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 5400 RPM)
Performance:
Write speed: 27 MB/s
Read speed: 43 MB/s
That model year iMac is notorious for poor performance with that 5400 rpm hdd. The drive speeds shown in your report are abysmal.
Yes, the internal drive can be replaced with an SSD but the task requires "advanced" technical skill.
It would be much easier and less risky to the iMac to install macOS on an external SSD and then boot and operate the Mac from that. Easy setup, vastly improved performance. And when you tire of the computer, dump it but keep the drive for use with the next one - not necessarily as a startup drive because it wouldn't be necessary.
Install macOS on an external storage device and use it as a startup disk - Apple Support
Congratulations you purchased a boat anchor! Return the computer ASAP to get your money back. The computer has a failing HD according to the EtreCheck report. To confirm download and run DriveDX, if ANY errors appear in the DriveDX that confirms what EtreCheck is saying.
Moving forward NEVER EVER purchase a used Mac from:
Why, you just found out...in addition most of these are NOT setup correctly per Apple's instructions in What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac which means the computer will ALWAYS be associated with the original owner and never operate correctly.
2019 Apple iMac running very slow
