OS X Lion is incredibly slow (even after index)

Sorry, I was too fast with posting that question. I jusz found http://discussions.apple.com/thread/1208857?start=0&tstart=0

I am reading the discussion now and will be back with what I found out.

Just like Michael Mortilla in that thread I got this message: "Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired."

Apple Remote Desktop.

Thanks. After reading through several discussions on the topic of ARDAgent casuing trouble I am going to delete it now and then do a safe reboot, giving my MBP the whole night to finish that. I'll be back tomorrow (Swiss time).

Someone up there mentioned a Mac cleaning program -- be careful and check where you end up if you search for that even by name -- there are a lot of websites Google finds for that search phrase selling a product from a different company --- one that has gotten a really bad reputation for polluting search results and selling problem software. Look very carefully at what you find online, don't just rely on what a website claims to be offering. There's some 'affiliate sales' operation making lots of copycat websites pushing the bad stuff by spoofing search results.

Re booting from recovery drive and resetpassword -- I've tried that. Worked for about three days before the permissions/ACL problems came back.

It helps but it's not the whole answer. Doing a complete Internet reinstall of Lion works for about a week before the problems come back. Next thing I'm going to try is erasing the whole drive and starting over.

I advised someone to remove Mac Keeper last week and their Mac sped up considerably. Those sort of programs are at best a waste of time and at worst mal ware.

I've seen ACL problems reported on every time I've run disk utilities repair for the last two years. I have never managed to remove / fix them but so far they don't seem to cause any observable problems. I would love to get to the bottom of why I get them though.

Ankhank you are absolutely right about the cleaning program. I mentioed CleanMyMac which I had bought in the Mac AppStore and which had gotten a good review by TUAW. I wouldn't trust any such software bought from the Internet.

By the way, removing ARDAgent didn't solve my problems. Although Finder has become faster as a result of everything I did, I can still not reboot in safe mode. The problem must be somewhere else. I'll keep searching, as I don' have the time to do a clean install after deleting the HD. I can only spend a few minutes here and there.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but a clean install fixed virtually every one of my problems. I can't tell you what a difference it made. Everything (and I mean everything) runs faster. I know it's a pain to have to do but I suppose the more apps you have on your machine, the more of a problem an in-place upgrade can cause. For example, my MacBook Air has minimal apps on it and it runs like a top after the Lion upgrade.

At least you can clone your existing partition (use Carbon Copy Cloner - it's the only thing that will work flawlessly) and then use the Migration Assistant to restore your settings and apps.

I was afraid, at first, that MA would "bring back" the problems I had before, but it did not. Whatever corruption I had before is gone now.

Good intel...

Do all the previously installed apps work out of the box once restored using MA or do you find any requiring serial numbers again? My Final Cut Pro Suite has been upgraded since the very first version and it takes a life time to start over with serials from previous versions etc. so I'd love to know before I do this.

Sorry more questions ... I upgraded to Lion using the App store obviously on my 2010 MBP i7.

Once I have made the CCC clone and erase my HD how to I install Lion again and does the App Store let me do this again without re paying?

Or do I use the disks that came with the MBP and install Snow Leopard (that it shipped with) then go to the App Store for Lion and again ... will it let me get Lion with out Repaying?

My CCC is under way ... looking forward to a full speed Lion MBP 🙂

I'm an idiot ... To erase and start over I have to use the Lion Recovery boot partition not the CD my Mac came with ... DUH!

Serial numbers are all intact. I had ONE app that I was particularly concerned about, but it came over as if it never left my machine.

Here's the deal...you can NOT use the Recovery Partition on your existing machine to do a clean install. Part of a clean install is to repartition the hard disk drive. Since you are using the HDD you can't unmount it and the other stuff required for an Erase and Repartition.

You HAVE to have a Lion DVD or have installed Lion on a USB drive.

Here are the instructions I used.

Here's, probably, your problem, though.

Lion install will delete this file after the upgrade is finished, so you're going to have to download the file again. Since your machine shows that Lion is installed, you can't download it again. Unless someone knows another way, I think you'll have to reinstall Snow Leopard so that when you go to the App Store, it will show up as uninstalled and you can download the file.

You can download Lion again from the App Store. Click on "Purchased" at the top of the App Store page and you should see Lion as an installable item.

Thank you ... Sheesh ... this is not a walk in the park... how on earth do non techie folk deal with this. I was assuming a boot to the Recovery would allow me to use the disk utils there and erase just the normal HD partition and would then simply allow a re installation to that partition while it (the Recovery partition) remained the booted one.

Let me tell you something - coming from a Windows background - this would be a NIGHTMARE on a PC.

It's not rocket science, but it IS time consuming.

I agree - there could be better instructions out there for non-techie folks - and I include myself in that group even though I've been using computers for over 20 years. Problem for folks like me is that the technology changes so what you knew isn't worth much today.

I tried what you thought would work and ran into problems - so I'm just trying to help you based on the mistakes I made. That's what these forums are good for and the Apple forums have saved my butt more than once. Just trying to return the favor.