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User profile for user: Larry Goshorn
Larry Goshorn Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

really slow disk access

our iMac runs like a dog. I've max'd RAM, cleaned and optimized the hard drive. Configured with two non-admin users (myself & my wife - I need right-click but it drives here crazy), and an admin account. iTunes and iPhoto libraries are shared, and they are stored on an external 500g drive. in addition we have TimeMachine active to a 2tb drive thru. External drives are connected thru the USB hi-Speed bus.


Examples of slow: up to a minute to switch users, 10-20 seconds for a cursor in Spotlight, Safari takes about a minute to get "warmed up".


I decided to do a clean install of Mavericks - all previous updates/upgrades were automated via Apple and/or AppStore.


So I'm creating a redundant backup of folders on the internal drive (everything except movies, music, & photos which are on the 500g and backed up via TimeMachine on the 2tb drive). in total only 172g to copy to another 1tb drive.


I started last night, but it went to sleep and did not work all night. in total it's been working 4-6hrs last night and 8hrs today. There is still 22hrs to go!


Is there any hope for this machine?


Larry :-)

========

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 24" early 2008

Posted on Dec 27, 2013 4:08 PM

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
55,073 points

Posted on Dec 27, 2013 5:12 PM

For performance issues, you should look at Applicatons -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor.


Another good diagnostic tool is etrecheck <hhttp://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck> (copy and paste the etrecheck as a reply to this thread, so members of the forum can evaluate it).


Data transfer involves the speed to read the data from the internal disk and the speed to write the data to the external disk. It could be either drive that is being the bottle neck. And if one of those drives is being battered with other I/O requests, that could affect its performance.


For example, have you told Spotlight to NOT index the external drive while you are copying the data to it? If not, then Spotlight may be doing additional I/O to the external drive indexing the data as you are adding it during the copy operations. System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy -> [+] and add your external drive to the list of items NOT to index. After you have completed the copy operation, you can use the [-] to remove the external drive, so that Spotlight can index the data.


That is just one possibility. If you have anti-virus software installed, it can be scanning both the internal and external disks looking for non-existant malware. Mac OS X comes with good anti-malware automatic tools built-in, so running 3rd party Anti-virus products is often more damaging than any benefit they claim to give you. Etrecheck will tell us if you are using an A/V product, even if you have forgotten that you installed it.


It is always possible that you have a failing internal drive, which causing the device drivers to do lots of retries that can slow down accessing data on your disk. This is not common, but neigher is it unheard of either.


Any thing of significant size loaded from an external disk will take longer than if it is stored on a well working internal disk.


If you are running more concurrent memory hog apps than your max'ed RAM can hold, you can be doing a lot of paging to/from disk when switching and/or launching apps. The pageout statistics can give a clue, and running the following command from Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal while actually using your system when it is behaving slowly can give more targeted information about whether you are overloading RAM


/usr/bin/sar -g 60 100


which will report the number of pages written to the pagefile each minute over a 100 minute period (modify the values to suit your tastes). Big spikes while switching apps or launching new apps, would indicate you are using more RAM than your max'ed out Mac can hold.


If it turns out that your computing needs exceed your max'ed out RAM, then you can get a speed boost by replacing the internal disk with a Solid State Disk, so that paging RAM to/from disk will happen much MUCH faster. However, before you start thinking about an SSD it is important to identify the real reason your system is slow.


Message was edited by: BobHarris

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
55,073 points

Dec 27, 2013 5:12 PM in response to Larry Goshorn

For performance issues, you should look at Applicatons -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor.


Another good diagnostic tool is etrecheck <hhttp://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck> (copy and paste the etrecheck as a reply to this thread, so members of the forum can evaluate it).


Data transfer involves the speed to read the data from the internal disk and the speed to write the data to the external disk. It could be either drive that is being the bottle neck. And if one of those drives is being battered with other I/O requests, that could affect its performance.


For example, have you told Spotlight to NOT index the external drive while you are copying the data to it? If not, then Spotlight may be doing additional I/O to the external drive indexing the data as you are adding it during the copy operations. System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy -> [+] and add your external drive to the list of items NOT to index. After you have completed the copy operation, you can use the [-] to remove the external drive, so that Spotlight can index the data.


That is just one possibility. If you have anti-virus software installed, it can be scanning both the internal and external disks looking for non-existant malware. Mac OS X comes with good anti-malware automatic tools built-in, so running 3rd party Anti-virus products is often more damaging than any benefit they claim to give you. Etrecheck will tell us if you are using an A/V product, even if you have forgotten that you installed it.


It is always possible that you have a failing internal drive, which causing the device drivers to do lots of retries that can slow down accessing data on your disk. This is not common, but neigher is it unheard of either.


Any thing of significant size loaded from an external disk will take longer than if it is stored on a well working internal disk.


If you are running more concurrent memory hog apps than your max'ed RAM can hold, you can be doing a lot of paging to/from disk when switching and/or launching apps. The pageout statistics can give a clue, and running the following command from Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal while actually using your system when it is behaving slowly can give more targeted information about whether you are overloading RAM


/usr/bin/sar -g 60 100


which will report the number of pages written to the pagefile each minute over a 100 minute period (modify the values to suit your tastes). Big spikes while switching apps or launching new apps, would indicate you are using more RAM than your max'ed out Mac can hold.


If it turns out that your computing needs exceed your max'ed out RAM, then you can get a speed boost by replacing the internal disk with a Solid State Disk, so that paging RAM to/from disk will happen much MUCH faster. However, before you start thinking about an SSD it is important to identify the real reason your system is slow.


Message was edited by: BobHarris

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User profile for user: Larry Goshorn
Larry Goshorn Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

Dec 27, 2013 7:05 PM in response to BobHarris

I watch Activity Monitor a lot, CPU never really seems to be stressed, nor the Disk. While I don't know how to read the Memory monitor, "memory presure" is typically stable at about 25%.


The terminal showed 0.0 pages written to the pagefile - taken while only doing back-up and Activity Monitor, no real change now that I'm also in Safari.


EtreCheck results:

Hardware Information:

iMac (24-inch, Early 2008)

iMac - model: iMac8,1

1 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM


Video Information:

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro - VRAM: 256 MB


Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9


Startup Items:

MySQLCOM: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM


System Software:

OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 27 days 2:48:17


Disk Information:

Hitachi HDP725032GLA380 disk0 : (320.07 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 319.21 GB (124.84 GB free)

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


USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight


Western Digital Ext HDD 1021 2 TB

disk5s1 (disk5s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB

Teri-02 (disk5s3) /Volumes/Teri-02: 2 TB (1.12 TB free)


Canon MP480 series


Western Digital My Book 1148 2 TB

disk3s1 (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB

2Teri BckUp (disk3s3) /Volumes/2Teri BckUp: 2 TB (1.32 TB free)


Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard




Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver



Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


FireWire Information:

WD Passport III 800mbit - 800mbit max

EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Passport HD (disk1s2) /Volumes/Passport HD: 499.76 GB (100.89 GB free)


Thunderbolt Information:


Kernel Extensions:


Problem System Launch Daemons:

[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist


Problem System Launch Agents:


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.livescribe.PenCommService.plist

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist


Launch Agents:


User Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist

[loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist


User Login Items:

Dropbox


3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player


Internet Plug-ins::

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.3.3.3

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

wkDimdimControl: Version: 1.01

GarminGpsControl: Version: 4.0.3.0 Release - SDK 10.6

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6

iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0


User Internet Plug-ins::

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.94


Bad Fonts:

None


Old applications:

Bluetooth Diagnostics Utility: Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth/Bluetooth Diagnostics Utility.app

Bluetooth Explorer: Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth/Bluetooth Explorer.app

BodyMedia SYNC: Version: 1.0.1 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/BodyMedia SYNC.app

CrashReporterPrefs: Version: 10.6.3 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/CrashReporterPrefs.app

Dashcode: Version: 3.0.2 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Dashcode.app

IBCarbonSimulator: Version: 4.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Interface Builder/Plug-ins/CarbonPlugin.ibplugin/Contents/Resources/IBCarbonSimulator.app

IBCocoaSimulator: Version: 4.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/Library/Interface Builder/Plug-ins/CocoaPlugin.ibplugin/Contents/Resources/IBCocoaSimulator.app

Instruments: Version: 4.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Instruments.app

Keynote: Version: 5.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/iWork '09/Keynote.app

Livescribe Desktop: Version: 2.8.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/LivescribeDesktop.app

Numbers: Version: 2.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/iWork '09/Numbers.app

OpenGL Driver Monitor: Version: 1.5 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL Driver Monitor.app

OpenGL ES Performance Detective: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL ES Performance Detective.app

OpenGL Profiler: Version: 4.4 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL Profiler.app

OpenGL Shader Builder: Version: 2.1 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/OpenGL Shader Builder.app

PacketLogger: Version: 2.3.6 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Bluetooth/PacketLogger.app

Pages: Version: 4.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/iWork '09/Pages.app

Plants vs: Version: 1.0.40 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/Plants vs. Zombies.app

Quartz Composer: Version: 4.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Quartz Composer.app

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.2 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Graphics Tools/Quartz Composer Visualizer.app

Quartz Debug: Version: 4.1 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Quartz Debug.app

SLLauncher: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.5

/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Silverlight/OutOfBrowser/SLLauncher.app

Spin Control: Version: 0.9.1 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Spin Control.app

Syncrospector: Version: 5.2 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/Syncrospector.app

USB Prober: Version: 4.0.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Utilities/USB Prober.app

Xcode: Version: 4.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Applications/Xcode.app

Xcode SSH Authentication Agent: Version: 4.0 - SDK 10.0

/Developer/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IDEFoundation.framework/Versions/A/Re sources/Xcode SSH Authentication Agent.app

Yasu: Version: 2.8.2 - SDK 10.4

/Applications/Utilities/Yasu.app

YummySoup!: Version: 2.4 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/YummySoup!.app


Time Machine:

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 297.29 GB Disk used: 181.03 GB

Passport HD: Disk size: 465.44 GB Disk used: 371.48 GB

Destinations:

2Teri BckUp [Local] (Last used)

Total size: 2

Total number of backups: 64

Oldest backup: 2013-08-05 12:04:28 +0000

Last backup: 2013-12-28 02:32:06 +0000

Size of backup disk: Adequate

Backup size 2 > (Disk used 552.50 GB X 3)

Time Machine details may not be accurate.

All volumes being backed up may not be listed.


Top Processes by CPU:

3% WindowServer

1% EtreCheck

1% Finder

1% Activity Monitor

0% sysmond


Top Processes by Memory:

188 MB Safari

160 MB Locum

123 MB mds_stores

78 MB Mail

70 MB softwareupdated


Virtual Memory Statistics:

54 MB Free RAM

1.25 GB Active RAM

1.22 GB Inactive RAM

581 MB Wired RAM

13.12 GB Page-ins

965 MB Page-outs

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User profile for user: BobHarris
BobHarris
User level: Level 9
55,073 points

Dec 28, 2013 5:03 PM in response to Larry Goshorn

CleanMyMac2 is a known problem child.

Try uninstalling CleanMyMac2. See <https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5710957?answerId=24280326022#24280326022>, the response by John Galt gives information about uninstalling CleanMyMac2


Besides that, I do not see anything else offensive in your configuration.


4GB of RAM is not a lot, but since you are getting all zeros for pageout data, the during your test you were not stressing your RAM, so I would still think maybe CleanMyMac2 is messing things up.

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really slow disk access

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