2008 iMac still painfully slow after Clean Install

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2008 iMac still painfully slow after Clean Install

All,

Any suggestions? I have an early 2008 24" iMac: 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo w/ 4gb of ram and a 320gb hard drive. After experiencing major slow-downs, to the point that the machine was rendered useless, I did a clean install of Lion this morning from my USB drive.

It snapped back initially, but after I restored my iPhoto and iTunes libraries, it was once again rendered useless. I have not installed anything else on the clean machine, so I rebooted. I've been sitting here for 20 minutes waiting for it to reboot and I just get a spinning wheel. Before I did the clean install I verified/cleaned disk permissions, etc., and I wiped the drive clean and destroyed all partitions.

Could this be a sign of a hard drive about ready to go?

Thoughts? I've also unplugged all extra peripherals. Thanks in advance!

Posted on Apr 12, 2012 12:56 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 12, 2012 12:58 PM in response to CtotheP

How much free space do you have?

Allan

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Answer 2

CtotheP Author

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Apr 12, 2012 1:07 PM in response to Allan Eckert

157 GB free out of 320 GB

I just booted back into the USB-based Disk Utility and am re-running the Verify Disk and Verify Permissions. It's estimate just to verify the disk is about 15 minutes.....bummer

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Answer 3

putnik

Level 4

1,179 points

Apr 12, 2012 1:16 PM in response to CtotheP

There are several things that commonly cause slowdowns after a new install. Spotlight indexing is the most common, but also, iPhoto Library and iTunes could be doing the same.

Check the Spotlight icon to see if there is a progress bar with a time line for the indexing to complete.

Hold Opt+Cmd and open iPhotos. Rebuilding the library may help.

I often set the sleep option in power preferences to "never" and leave the computer on overnight to sort itself out, after a new install.

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Answer 4

CtotheP Author

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Apr 12, 2012 1:18 PM in response to putnik

Thanks for the feedback, but I can't even make it past Boot. it just sits there and hangs. the apple goes away and I just get a white screen

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Answer 5

putnik

Level 4

1,179 points

Apr 12, 2012 1:30 PM in response to CtotheP

Then try it in Safe Mode, in case some app is causing problems.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

Then run System Update as a priority too.

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Answer 6

CtotheP Author

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Apr 12, 2012 1:42 PM in response to putnik

How long should it take to boot into Safe Mode 😕 It's taking forever.

I did find permissions that needed repairing, so I repaired them. The System Update was the VERY first thing I did after the clean install

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Answer 7

putnik

Level 4

1,179 points

Apr 12, 2012 2:35 PM in response to CtotheP

It does a disk repair, and says "several minutes"...so be patient. http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1884

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Answer 8

CtotheP Author

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Apr 13, 2012 6:12 AM in response to putnik

Looks like the problem fixed itself. The machine had been in "sleep" for about 3 weeks (unknowingly) while I was on vacation. I noticed it was running VERY hot, so I unplugged it overnight and then plugged it back in.....VOILA!

Back up and running. It's got me a little nervous, but at least it's working smoothly again.

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Answer 9

CtotheP Author

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8 points

Apr 14, 2012 7:40 AM in response to CtotheP

Hard Drive failed!!!

I followed the replacement instructions online and just replaced it with a 1 TB Seagate Barracuda......it's like a new machine!

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