iMac harddrive insanely slow

Question

iMac harddrive insanely slow

Hi there,

I updated my iMac running SL to Lion right after release, and since then the machine is way slower than it was before. The startup-time from the chime until login-screen is about 45 seconds, logging in takes nearly a minute, without any apps startet and no startup-items.

I already somewhat disabled Spotlight (excluded the whole drive), disk is used for about 30%. No SMART errors, I already checked the disk with the Disk-Utility. I ran the Disk Speed Test from Blackmagicdesign, results are about 80-100MB/s. My old 2008 Mac Pro is delivering here >150 MB/s. iStat Menus is showing the same values.

How can I do any further diagnostics, without reinstalling the whole system?

HDD: WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0

Link-Speed: 3 Gigabit

Help highly appreciated.

--Michael

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Mid 2011, 27", i7 3.4 GHz, 16GB

Posted on Mar 1, 2012 11:41 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Mar 1, 2012 11:47 AM in response to Michael Mertel

Disconnect all wired peripherals except keyboard, mouse, and monitor, if applicable. Launch the usual set of applications you use when you notice the slowdown.

Step 1

Launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top) and press return.

☞ In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the page that opens.

Select the CPU tab. Select All Processes from the popup menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.

Now select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?

Step 2

Launch the Console application in the same way as above, and select “kernel.log” from the file list. Post the dozen or so most recent messages in the log – the text, please, not a screenshot. If there are repeats, please post only one example of each repeated message.

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Answer 2

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Mar 1, 2012 11:47 AM in response to Michael Mertel

Did you disable Resume?

It is one of the over 250 new features of the World's Most Advanced Operating System called Resume.

When choosing Restart, Sleep or Shutdown there is a checkbox you can uncheck to prevent the apps from launching.

Also in System Preferences > General there is a hard-to-find checkbox under "Number of recent items" you can turn off.

If you want to turn it off on a per app basis, (TextEdit is by example, replace TextEdit with the name of the app)

Launch Terminal and copy/paste this at the prompt...

defaults write com.apple.TextEdit NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

Press return.

To turn off Resume globally...

chflags uchg ~/Library/"Saved Application State"

Press return

The reverse of the first one is to replace false with true.

The reverse of the second one is

chflags nouchg ~/Library/"Saved Application State"

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Answer 3

Mar 1, 2012 11:47 AM in response to Michael Mertel

you can always insert disk 2 that came with your mac and run the Apple Hardware Test.

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Answer 4

Mar 1, 2012 11:41 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hi guys,

thanks for your quick response:

Linc:

Page outs and Swap used?

Both values are zero, no swapping at all.

macjack:

Do you really think resume can have something to do with slow speed, even the system is idle and no apps started?

shldr2thewhell:

I will bring back the disk home from the office today and give it a shot, unfortunatly the 'D' isn't working while startup

--Michael

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Answer 5

Mar 1, 2012 11:49 PM in response to Michael Mertel

I did some further digging and was thinking, what performance can I expect? What do others get with a similar configuration?

Already said, the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows about 80-100 MB/s.

If I do some testing with dd at the terminal the values differs a bit:

WRITE:

sh-3.2# dd if=/dev/zero of=mm.out bs=16384 count=100000

100000+0 records in

100000+0 records out

1638400000 bytes transferred in 18.317591 secs (89444076 bytes/sec)

READ:

sh-3.2# dd if=/dev/disk0 of=/dev/null bs=16384 count=100000

100000+0 records in

100000+0 records out

1638400000 bytes transferred in 33.998312 secs (48190628 bytes/sec)

All tests done on a complete idle system, no apps running.

Is this for real?

If I check with iStat Menu right after logging in, and the hdd is still scratching data from the platters the system is sluggish, only about 2-5 MB/s are transferred.

In the year 1998 running Windows 95 (SE of course 🙂) I would say it has something to do with fragmentation, but even iDefrag does not show much of it.

--Michael

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Mar 2, 2012 4:09 AM in response to Michael Mertel

What are the results of step 2?

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Answer 7

Mar 2, 2012 10:37 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hi,

first of all, AHT doesn't show any trouble, passed with flying colors 🙂

The kernel.log for the last boot looks like this:

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: PMAP: PCID enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Darwin Kernel Version 11.3.0: Thu Jan 12 18:47:41 PST 2012; root:xnu-1699.24.23~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: vm_page_bootstrap: 4055356 free pages and 106180 wired pages

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: kext submap [0xffffff7f8072f000 - 0xffffff8000000000], kernel text [0xffffff8000200000 - 0xffffff800072f000]

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: zone leak detection enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: mig_table_max_displ = 73

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: TSC Deadline Timer supported and enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=1 LocalApicId=0 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=2 LocalApicId=2 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=3 LocalApicId=4 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=4 LocalApicId=6 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=5 LocalApicId=1 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=6 LocalApicId=3 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=7 LocalApicId=5 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=8 LocalApicId=7 Enabled

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: calling mpo_policy_init for TMSafetyNet

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Safety net for Time Machine (TMSafetyNet)

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: calling mpo_policy_init for Sandbox

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Seatbelt sandbox policy (Sandbox)

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: calling mpo_policy_init for Quarantine

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Security policy loaded: Quarantine policy (Quarantine)

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: MAC Framework successfully initialized

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: using 16384 buffer headers and 10240 cluster IO buffer headers

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: IOAPIC: Version 0x20 Vectors 64:87

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: ACPI: System State [S0 S3 S4 S5] (S3)

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: PFM64 (36 cpu) 0xf10000000, 0xf0000000

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration begin ]

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: Turbo Ratios 1234

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement: (built 18:56:37 Jan 12 2012) initialization complete

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: console relocated to 0xf10010000

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: PCI configuration changed (bridge=16 device=4 cardbus=0)

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: [ PCI configuration end, bridges 12 devices 17 ]

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: mbinit: done [128 MB total pool size, (85/42) split]

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misused

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib kmod start

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless kmod start

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless load succeeded

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient: ready

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 built-in now active, GUID c82a14fffe7c6290; max speed s800.

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 000000009833 0x5ac 0x8403 0x9833

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: ath_get_caps[4037] rx chainmask mismatch actual 7 sc_chainmak 0

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.018015: ath_get_caps[4012] tx chainmask mismatch actual 7 sc_chainmak 0

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022577: Atheros: mac 448.3 phy 0.0 radio 0.0

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022584: Use hw queue 0 for WME_AC_BE traffic

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022590: Use hw queue 1 for WME_AC_BK traffic

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022595: Use hw queue 2 for WME_AC_VI traffic

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022599: Use hw queue 3 for WME_AC_VO traffic

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022604: Use hw queue 8 for CAB traffic

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022608: Use hw queue 9 for beacons

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022660: wlan_vap_create : enter. devhandle=0xa2acc610, opmode=IEEE80211_M_STA, flags=0x1

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022692: wlan_vap_create : exit. devhandle=0xa2acc610, opmode=IEEE80211_M_STA, flags=0x1.

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 1.022763: start[1012] sc->sc_inuse_cnt is at offset: 203c, sizeof(_sc->sc_ic) is 25e8

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: [IOBluetoothHCIController::setConfigState] calling registerService

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: 77EE11E4-1111-2222-3333-444444448DA5

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProviderClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Got boot device = IOService:/AppleACPIPlatformExpert/PCI0@0/AppleACPIPCI/SATA@1F,2/AppleIntelPchS eriesAHCI/PRT0@0/IOAHCIDevice@0/AppleAHCIDiskDriver/IOAHCIBlockStorageDevice/IOB lockStorageDriver/WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0 Media/IOGUIDPartitionScheme/Customer@2

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: BSD root: disk0s2, major 14, minor 2

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: Kernel is LP64

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: BCM5701Enet: Ethernet address c8:2a:11:22:33:44

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AirPort_AtherosNewma40: Ethernet address e4:ce:11:22:33:44

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: IO80211Controller::dataLinkLayerAttachComplete(): adding AppleEFINVRAM notification

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: IO80211Interface::efiNVRAMPublished():

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 12.817204: setDISASSOC from ATH_INTERFACE_CLASS disconnectVap

Mar 2 19:27:36 localhost kernel[0]: 12.817218: switchVap from 1 to 1

Mar 2 19:27:37 localhost kernel[0]: Previous Shutdown Cause: 0

Mar 2 19:27:38 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: DSMOS has arrived

Mar 2 19:27:38 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: ** Device in slot: SLOT--1 **

Mar 2 19:27:40 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: Ethernet [AppleBCM5701Ethernet]: Link up on en0, 1-Gigabit, Full-duplex, Symmetric flow-control, Debug [796d,1111,2222,3333,4444,7c00]

Mar 2 19:27:43 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: macx_swapon SUCCESS

Mar 2 19:27:48 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: [ffffff802601b000][BNBMouseDevice::init][66.6] init is complete

Mar 2 19:27:48 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: [ffffff802601b000][BNBMouseDevice::handleStart][66.6] Done

Mar 2 19:27:48 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: [ffffff80261e1800][AppleMultitouchHIDEventDriver::start] entered

Mar 2 19:27:48 Michael-Mertels-iMac kernel[0]: [ffffff8025a45900][AppleMultitouchDevice::start] entered

As you can see, no HDD related errors or similar.

--Michael

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Answer 8

Mar 2, 2012 10:38 AM in response to Michael Mertel

I also ran Ubuntu 12.04 on my iMac (LiveCD) and the dd showed about 135 MB/s read speed, couldn't test write without killing my Mac OS installation 🙂

--Michael

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Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Mar 2, 2012 10:51 AM in response to Michael Mertel

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.

Step 1

Select "system.log" from the file list. Enter "BOOT_TIME" (without the quotes) in the search box. Note the times of the log messages referring to boot times. Now clear the search box and scroll back in the log to the time of the most recent boot when you had the problem. Post the messages logged during the time when you had the problem – the text, please, not a screenshot. For example, if the problem is a slow startup taking three minutes, post the messages timestamped within three minutes after the boot time. If the problem is a crash or a shutdown hang, post the messages from before the boot time, when the system was about to crash or was failing to shut down.

Edit out excessive repeats and personal information, if any.

If the log doesn't go back far enough in time, scroll down in the Console file list to /private/var/log/system.log.0.bz2. Search the archived log, and if necessary the older ones below them, for the same information.

Step 2

Do the same with kernel.log.

Step 3

Still in Console, look under System Diagnostic Reports for crash or panic logs, and post the most recent one, if any. For privacy’s sake, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if present (it may not be.) Please do not post shutdownStall or hang logs – they're very long and not helpful.

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Answer 10

Sep 29, 2013 5:29 PM in response to Michael Mertel

Hi Michael,

I have the same drive and the same performance issues. Did you find a solution?

Thanks,

Alec

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Answer 11

Sep 29, 2013 11:46 PM in response to alecthomas

Hi Alec,

sorry, no I wasn't. It always bugged me but at the end I bought a Thunderbolt enclosure with two Samsung SSDs and now I'am happy. I'am looking for a way now to disable this "**§%*&§" HDD so I don't need to hear it any longer.

--Michael

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