As part of solving another problem I started up my iMac in safe mode. After restarting in normal mode the computer was very sluggish and behaved strangely. For example, System Preference could not load the "Users and Groups" pane. I had to restart several more times before things became nearly normal. (a) Is this the usual experience? (b) If it is not, how can it be avoided?
OS X El Capitan (10.11), Airport extreme
Hey John,
I understand that you are having multiple issues with your iMac. Let's see if we can get it working properly.
I would start with verify your hard drive by following the steps outlined below. You can do this by starting up in Recovery HD and then Disk Utility to verify and fix any issues that it may find that might be contributing to the slow performance.
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203176
Let me know if this works or need further assistance.
Take it easy
I thought using RecoveryDisk would be safest, but that failed. I tried three times to restart with command-R held down, then I shut down the computer, held down command-R and then pressed the power button. In all cases the behavior was the same: After the apple icon appeared nothing happened for several minutes, then the screen went black, the chime sounded and a normal start up occurred. I thought the Recovery Disk was installed as part of the system installation. Is there something else I have to do?
Hello John,
It should boot to the Recovery HD with no issues. If you can try using the fsck method in the same article that I previously posted. If you are still unable to to boot to anything, then your next step would be to contact Apple Support using the link below.
Contact Apple Support
https://www.apple.com/support/contact/
Take care
Hi Before I risk fsck , I should clarify the situation; (1) I can always boot up normally. (2) First Aid on Disk Utility reports no problems.
Question: Is the Recovery HD supposed to appear in the list of partitions seen in Disk Utility? It does not appear when I use Disk Utility after a normal startup.
Strange behavior after safe startup
