My imac (7years old) is now really slow. How can I speed it up myse lf.I have never done anything to it since I bough it..t it f

Usually they don't, but after a long time you can build up spaces between files (as you delete stuff) which are too small for the next file to fit in and so go unused. These can eventually build up into quite a large amount of free space which the OS won't use.

As OS X defrags files below 20 MB on the fly, by the time you get to that state you're going to be running very slow - you'll appear to have lots of free space, but the system is struggling to find room for swap files.

More usual is the use of very large files (video and Audio editing). That can require defragging more often.

Most applications which claim to defrag only defrag files, not the free space, wheras cloning writes everything fresh to the new drive, and the same when cloned back to the internal. The bonus is that you then have a backup which can be updated incrementally using the same software you used for the clone.

For cloning you obviously need an external drive to clone to, and for PPC it has to be FireWire. Format it with Disk Utility as APM (Intels use GUID) partition map and Mac OS Extended (journalled) (aka HFS+ journalled)

Make the clone with CarbonCopyCloner (donationware, but aeverything works even in free mode) or SuperDuper (free to clone, but I think it's $30 or so to enable the incremental backups etc.)

No doubt you'll need directions for reformatting the `HD, but I'm afraid I'll have to leave that for one of the others for now - need to get my meds and head to bed (22:40 this side of the pond)

I do not believe that it has been established why your computer is running slow. It's a guess that your computer needs defragmented. This was a common fix in the PC word.

You disk isn't that full so there would be less of an issue with fragmentation. The mac does defragment small files automatically. Large files would have ended up in the large amount of free space.

Did you do something to cause the disk to become defragmented? Adding then deleting lots of files constantly( 1000 files everyday) ? Adding and deleting lots of large files ( 1 gig movies 10 per day)?

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Robert

re: mds and mdworker.

Don't worry what they mean, they're just processes that show up in Activity Monitor. If you're seeing CPU activity at 60+ % I'm hoping that it is these two tasks that are using most. They'll stop soon and all should be good.

You're perfectly correct of course, rccharles.

I note I didn't add that rider last night - hurrying again.

Warren; mds, mdworker, mdhelper are Spotlight processes. Nothing unusual.

What would be best if we had a screen copy of the cpu usage. What would be best if we had the same screen image as I showed. The names are quit generic, so there should not be a privacy concern.

warrenfromfayville wrote:

I did not add & Delet 1000 files a day. It would be a strech if I did 10 a day.

I guess there is no simple way such as deleting caches or pllst files to speed it up a bit ?

If your cpu is running %80 percent bus, I'd say that should not be happenning for long periods of time. You statement on cpu busy could be read as 80% busy or 20% busy. That is why I'll like to see the screen image of cpu usage.

I was making a guess. I have no idea what the real numbers on file create & delete are.

You are in great shape as to your use of memory.

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You may want to run these "standard" fixes if the problem persists.

1) Check the amount of free space on your harddrive. You should have a several gigs free.

** At first glance, you are in great shape as to your use of disk space. **

2) You should run disk utility

a) verify the disk

b) update your permissions.

3) Try a safe boot.

Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Wait awhile Wait awhile while you harddrive

is being checked.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455

Look in accouts login for you id and verify that you are not startup some odd program.

4) You may want to run applejack to clean up your machine.

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

a lot more ways to fix your Mac.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html

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

There are clean up programs.

How long has it been since you powered on your machine?

Under disk activity I see that you have Read 5.20 gb and wrote 5.69. The write data seems high in comparision to the read data. Have you been writing files out to disk? Do you have an idea what they are?

In activity monitor, we need to see all processes. Select all process.

We need to sort cpu usage by the highest users to the lowest.

Get % CPU so the arrow is ponting downward.

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Do you hear disk chatter?

Safari 4.1.3 on Tiger 10.4.11 caused endless writting to / from disk for me. Started after loading a page or two.

You are running Leopard on your machine. What web browser?

You probably have been logged on for awhile. I suggest you shutdown you machine. Power back on. collect the numbers when you are starting up an applications & the application starts slowly

Looks like SyncServer is the problem.

Look at this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1449187?answerId=6883175022#6883175022&messageID=6883175#6883175?messageI D=6883175

skip over the confusing stuff and go to the correct answer.

We haven't verify you have this problem with SyncServer, but you have the same symptoms.

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What were you doing when you took this image? Finder is too busy in my view.

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You should have a complete backup of your data. At least get a flashdrive & get your most important stuff. You harddrive is getting old. You should have been able to see you data with safe boot.

You need an external Firewire drive to boot a PowerPC Mac computer.

I recommend you do a google search on any external harddrive you are looking at.

I bought a low cost external drive enclosure. When I started having trouble with it, I did a google search and found a lot of complaints about the drive enclosure. I ended up buying a new drive enclosure. On my second go around, I decided to buy a drive enclosure with a good history of working with Macs. The chip set seems to be the key ingredient. The Oxford line of chips seems to be good. I got the Oxford 911.

Has everything interface:

FireWire 800/400 + USB2, + eSATA 'Quad Interface'

&

save a little money interface:

FireWire 400 + USB 2.0

This web page lists both external harddrive types. You may need to scroll to the right to see both.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

Robert

Can't help you with the CPU stuff, but -

"They also tell me appleworks 6 is not compatble with intel system. I have a dozen or so spread sheets I woould like to be able to use. Is there anny way to do that ??"

Appleworks is fine up to Snow Leopard 10.6.8, running under Rosetta. In Lion, Rosetta support is dropped.

iWorks Apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) will open the relevant AW files ---

Just drag WP file onto the Pages icon in the Dock, or a SS file onto the Numbers icon. Likewise Presentation files onto the Keynote icon.

Or you can right-click on the file and use the "open with" dialogue to choose the relevant application.

For SS files to Numbers, they usually go very smoothly, but occasionally you can get a few glitches - the date fields tend to screw up for instance. Easily fixed using the Inspector though.

Allow a good bit of time for the Numbers file to open - it takes a while to do the conversion.

Message was edited by: noondaywitch

What you posted indicates one or more applications are taking too much cpu time. Thus, there is less evidence of disk fragmentation. Now we need to find which applicatin is busy.

Found some interesting time to take screen shots, but you trim what you post too much. Repeat. So we can see what is going on. Always need the threads sort from the one that takes the most to least cpu time. See my previous post which explains how

1) All threads

2) Top thread take most cpu time.

3) At least ten applications at top

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Did you look into this? This is a real canidate for you slowness. You are using sync. An apple store employee can fix it.

Looks like SyncServer is the problem.

Look at this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1449187?answerId=6883175022#6883175022&messageID=6883175#6883175?messageI D=6883175

skip over the confusing stuff and go to the correct answer.