Is my HD dying?

Question

Hi allPlease forgive my lack of knowledge; I&#x27;ve searched but there are so many different answers it&#x27;s hard to sort wheat from chaff.I&#x27;m getting the spinning beach ball on a very regular basis, opening very basic apps/documents, and my mac is just generally slowing down to an annoying level.This morning documents folder refused point blank to open until I restarted the Mac.It&#x27;s basically used for email, internet, and word processing, so I can&#x27;t believe it&#x27;s unable to cope with my usage.It&#x27;s nowhere near &#x27;full.&#x27;iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)2.5 GHz Intel Core i54 GB 1333 MHz DDR3AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MBRunning OS X Yosemite 10.10.3I know you&#x27;ll need to see all the tech specs, but other than &#x27;about this mac&#x27; I&#x27;ve no idea how to find the huge report file of all technical stuff that most people on here seem to post...if you could point me in that direction I&#x27;ll gladly post the full report/specs??Any help in starting to get my Mac performance back would be very much appreciated.Andrew

D.Cohen · Answer

One of the best ways to improve performance is to upgrade to 8GB of RAM.To improve performance without the upgrade, try these steps:- Shut down your Mac- Wait until your computer turns off and after that press the Power button- Right after you hear the startup tone, press and hold the Shift key- Release the Shift key when you see a grey Apple sign and the progress bar below this sign- Once you see Desktop, start a Disc Utility scan to detect and repair file system errors (don&#x27;t forget to choose your main hard drive)- Click on Verify Disc and then, if asked to fix problems, on Repair Disk- After this, click on Verify Disc Permissions and then on Repair Disc Permissions- After the process is finished, shut down your Mac and turn it back on after about 30 secondsHope this helps!

andrew coley · Answer

Thanks; I&#x27;ve repaired disk via disk utility before, but not with the &#x27;Shift at startup;&#x27; Is this different?Also for anyone who can offer more help, have discovered EtreCheck...please see below.Problem description:Mac running slow/spinning beach ballEtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)Report generated 5/5/15, 11:19 AMDownload EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheckClick the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.Hardware Information: ℹ️    iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) (Technical Specifications)    iMac - model: iMac12,1    1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core    4 GB RAM Upgradeable        BANK 0/DIMM0            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok        BANK 1/DIMM0            2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok        BANK 0/DIMM1            Empty           BANK 1/DIMM1            Empty       Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/nVideo Information: ℹ️    AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 512 MB        iMac 1920 x 1080System Software: ℹ️    OS X 10.10.3 (14D136) - Time since boot: 0:25:21Disk Information: ℹ️    WDC WD5000AAKS-402AA0 disk0 : (500.11 GB)        EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB         Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 499.25 GB (316.28 GB free)        Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB     OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5690H  USB Information: ℹ️    Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub         Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller     Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)     Apple Internal Memory Card Reader     Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busGatekeeper: ℹ️    Mac App Store and identified developersKernel Extensions: ℹ️        /System/Library/Extensions    [not loaded]    com.tomtom.driver.UsbEthernetGadget (1.0.0d1) [Click for support]Launch Daemons: ℹ️    [loaded]    com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]User Launch Agents: ℹ️    [failed]    com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist [Click for details]    [loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]User Login Items: ℹ️    NoneInternet Plug-ins: ℹ️    SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 [Click for support]    iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.103rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️    NoneTime Machine: ℹ️    Auto backup: YES    Volumes being backed up:        Macintosh HD: Disk size: 499.25 GB Disk used: 182.97 GB    Destinations:        APC Time Machine [Local]         Total size: 600.10 GB         Total number of backups: 2         Oldest backup: 2014-08-01 14:48:14 +0000         Last backup: 2015-02-24 17:00:05 +0000         Size of backup disk: Adequate            Backup size 600.10 GB &gt; (Disk used 182.97 GB X 3)Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️        12%    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(3)         9%    WindowServer         9%    com.apple.WebKit.Networking         3%    Safari         2%    sysmondTop Processes by Memory: ℹ️    659 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(3)    455 MB    kernel_task    438 MB    softwareupdated    111 MB    Safari    98 MB    Microsoft WordVirtual Memory Information: ℹ️    373 MB    Free RAM     3.63 GB    Used RAM     0 B    Swap Used Diagnostics Information: ℹ️    May 5, 2015, 10:52:11 AM    Self test - passed    May 5, 2015, 10:12:52 AM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mds_2015-05-05-101252_[redacted].cpu_resource.d iag [Click for details]

dwb · Answer

I don’t see anything other than the fact that you are running with only 4GB of RAM and you have Safari and MS Word running at the same time. Actually Word would be enough. 4GB is barely enough to run Yosemite and when you add two memory hungry programs like Word and Safari you are going to see beachballs. Fact is, I have a 2015 8GB iMac and until I began using an external SSD I couldn’t run Word, Safari, and Mail without Word showing beachballs.