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hardrive is cooking like popcorn all the time and iMac is SLOW.

Update Symantec weekly fro protection. Recently reduced speed on my IP (comcast) for cost reduction. Constantly hear hardrive cooking like popcorn. Seeing those rainbow colored spinning wheels more often. iMac is sluggish to say the least.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Sep 6, 2013 1:13 PM

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7 replies

Sep 6, 2013 1:39 PM in response to arnieom

Run Activity Monitor, select to show all processes, and look at the amount of CPU time being shown by the various processes. Any that particularly stand out?


Note that Symantec Antivirus is itself often the cause of performance problems. You might want to remove it and see if matters improve. There are so few instances of malware that constantly-running antivirus applications are usually more of a hinderance then they are a help.


Regards.

Sep 6, 2013 1:41 PM in response to arnieom

Before you do ANYTHING backup your computer using Time Machine and/or SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner. Your HD appears to be failing! If you do not backup and your HD totally fails all off your data will be lost. After backing up the computer run Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode at least 3x back to back if you can. If it reports hardware errors as I suspect it will take it in immediately for a new HD replacement. Once you get it back you can easily restore from your backup.


I also agree about the Symantec apps, I would STRONGLY recommend uninstalling it. Not only is it unecessary it may the the cause of your problem.

Sep 6, 2013 1:45 PM in response to arnieom

Also, download and install a temperature monitoring app like Temperature Monitor or iStat Pro and report back the temps it records.

In case your iMac's hard drive is failing, you need to make a backup of your important data ASAP!

Either backup to optical discs, USB Flash drives or externally connected hard drive which you must purchase.


Also, FYI OS X doesn't need antivirus protection. Antivirus apps interfere with the normal operation and security of Mac OS X. If there is a dedicted uninstaller for Synantec, completely uninstall this software.

Sep 6, 2013 2:15 PM in response to rkaufmann87

My backup to external drive is happening as I message. However prior to that this was what actions were taken Update! Prior to you kindly reply, I disconnected external back-up hard drive and the popping like popcorn stopped. However, iMac is still a bit slow and having lots of those rotary rainbow icons. Will take you suggestions shortly. Thank you! PS: Not aware of Apple Hardware test in extended mode. Will search for that.

Sep 6, 2013 2:22 PM in response to arnieom

If your external hard drive was making this popcorn-like noise, that drive could be failing.

You still may need to purchase a new external drive and transfer the data off of your old, external hard drive and on to the new one using a application like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone the data to a new drive.

hardrive is cooking like popcorn all the time and iMac is SLOW.

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