Q: Mavericks - worst OS update in memory?

I've done most of those apart from a totally new install.

The external HD problem also exists on my wife's Macbook Air, (and if the length of the threads on this discussion  forum are an indicator then it is not an uncommon problem)

Well, I've fixed one of the problems. Zipcloud support told me that their application does not work very well with App Nap, so I had to permanently disable that specifically for the Zipcloud app.

I still have the following problems:

1) External HD's have been reformatted and time machine seems to work, but it can take a long while for the HD's to mount properly and for Time Machine to start (sometimes hours)

2) MBP still freeezing - no idea why, I don't have a lot of system extensions or junk software. I use Native Instruments Traktor Scratch Pro and there don't appear to be any issues reported with the latest version and Mavericks on the NI forums.

3) Disk Utility is still reporting every time I run it that the disk needs to be repaired in Recovery HD mode but when I do this DU still subsequently reports the same thing

I reinstalled Mavericks and ran the Apple Hardware Test but no joy...here's the results of my Etrecheck scan if anyone would be kind enough to cast their eye over them:

Hardware Information:

          MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro10,1

          1 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

          16 GB RAM

Video Information:

          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB

          NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB

Audio Plug-ins:

          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0

          AirPlay: Version: 1.9

          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0

          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

System Software:

          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 0:7:7

Disk Information:

          APPLE SSD SM768E disk0 : (751.28 GB)

                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    disk0s2 (disk0s2) <not mounted>: 750.42 GB

                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

          Apple Inc. MacBook Air SuperDrive

          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Kernel Extensions:

          com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower          (1.5.3)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

          [loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

          [loaded] com.orbicule.uc.plist

          [failed] com.rogueamoeba.hermes.plist

Launch Agents:

          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

          [loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

          [loaded] com.orbicule.UCAgent.plist

User Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

User Login Items:

          GrowlHelperApp

          iTunesHelper

          EvernoteHelper

          Dropbox

          CrossOver CD Helper

          ZipCloud

          NIHardwareAgent

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player

          Flip4Mac WMV

          Native Instruments USB Audio

Internet Plug-ins:

          AdobePDFViewer.plugin

          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

          AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin1016264.plugin

          AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin101749.plugin

          Default Browser.plugin

          Flash Player.plugin

          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin

          googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

          npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

          o1dbrowserplugin.plugin

          OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin

          QuickTime Plugin.plugin

          SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

          Silverlight.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

          WebEx64.plugin

Bad Fonts:

          None

Time Machine:

          Skip System Files: NO

          Auto backup: YES

          Volumes being backed up:

          Destinations:

                    GC HD [Local] (Last used)

                    Total size: 999.86 GB

                    Total number of backups: 15

                    Oldest backup: 2013-10-28 00:22:19 +0000

                    Last backup: 2013-11-04 06:44:15 +0000

                    Size of backup disk: Excellent

                              Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk size Zero KB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU:

              40%          ZipCloud

               3%          WindowServer

               1%          fontd

               1%          EtreCheck

               0%          com.apple.WebKit.Networking

               0%          ps

               0%          Dropbox

               0%          loginwindow

               0%          uc

               0%          Safari

Top Processes by Memory:

          197 MB             Safari

          115 MB             ZipCloud

          98 MB              WindowServer

          98 MB              Dock

          98 MB              com.apple.IconServicesAgent

          82 MB              Dropbox

          82 MB              mds_stores

          66 MB              com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

          49 MB              com.apple.WebKit.Networking

          49 MB              SystemUIServer

Virtual Memory Statistics:

          10.27 GB           Free RAM

          3.75 GB            Active RAM

          550 MB             Inactive RAM

          1.43 GB            Wired RAM

          292 MB             Page-ins

          0 B                Page-outs