iMac spinning wheel appears on every click and is unusable for ALL tasks

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Level 1

9 points

iMac spinning wheel appears on every click and is unusable for ALL tasks

My iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) is freezing/loading every time I click on something. This happens on the most simplest of tasks such as opening the finder window, opening system preference, right clicking on desktop etc.

It happened suddenly a few days ago and I haven't updated anything recently... I did notice that this started occurring after I opened the Photos Agent app for the first time and imported over 1000 images/videos from my iPhone6. Could this be a cause of the problem?

The memory is 4GB and it's been running fine until now. If someone could help me out on this that'd be great!

Mac specs:

OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

processor: 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5

4GB RAM

Over 500 GB free of 1T

I've checked Disk Utility and have no errors.

Activity monitor also seems fine

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Dec 2, 2015 1:42 AM

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Answer 1

funguss88 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2015 2:51 PM in response to SeaPapp

Yes I've done recovery boot with Command R and repaired the hard disk. Nothing was noticeably different after doing that.

I have no idea what MacSwapper is if I'm honest with you...?

I'm currently waiting for the computer to let me uninstall CleanMyMac2 - Hopefully I can get rid of it. If I succeed I shall try resetting the SMC next.

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Answer 2

seventy one

Level 7

27,460 points

Dec 2, 2015 2:23 AM in response to funguss88

Suggest you download and run this app which will analyse your system and perhaps show us what is causing your troubles. Publish the result as an answer here.

http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

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Answer 3

funguss88 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2015 2:34 AM in response to seventy one

Yes I've seen other forums mention this. I managed to get as far as downloading it but couldn't even open the zip because of spinning rainbow wheel.

I'll try again when I get home and hopefully it will work, but it might be unlikely 😢

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Answer 4

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

Dec 2, 2015 3:54 AM in response to funguss88

Hopefully you have a backup because it sounds like your hard drive is failing.

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Answer 5

funguss88 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2015 4:08 AM in response to SeaPapp

Unfortunately I don't have a back up!!! A very stupid mistake I know. This is what's worrying me so much 😢

I managed to start copying everything to external hard drive through time machine last night, but it had only completed 45mb out of 500GB by morning!

Shall I wait until it has all copied over?

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Answer 6

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

Dec 2, 2015 4:59 AM in response to funguss88

If you have another Mac available you might have better luck starting your iMac in Target Disk Mode and using the other Mac to run cloning software like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of your hard drive. Sometimes running in target mode is easier on the drive than being the start up drive. If you can't use tdm I think waiting for Time Machine to finish, if it will, may be your only choice.

How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

https://bombich.com

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Answer 7

funguss88 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2015 6:02 AM in response to SeaPapp

Thanks for your suggestion Mike Sombrio

This sounds like a very logical work around! Much appreciated!

I'm concerned it might be a little technical for myself to carry out however. Do you think Apple would help with this if I sent it off for service? Or am I responsible for backing up my files before sending?

Many thanks

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Answer 8

funguss88 Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 2, 2015 12:47 PM in response to seventy one

Here's the results from etresoft.

Sorry about the side ways pictures but my computer wouldn't let me access a web browser to copy and paste the results 😢

Hope you guys can help with this info?

Cheers

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Answer 9

MichelPM

Level 10

81,541 points

Dec 2, 2015 1:03 PM in response to funguss88

You are missing part of the report that we need that has info about your Mac hardware and your hard drive.

If Etrecheck reported that your hard drive has errors on it (written in red), then your hard drive is failing and you need to get all that data off of that drive and backed up to another external drive and get that internal hard drive replaced.

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Answer 10

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,492 points

Dec 2, 2015 1:48 PM in response to funguss88

Thats very difficult to read but what I do see is that you've installed Clean My Mac, that needs to be uninstalled as it will, or probably akready has, damaged your operating system.http://macpaw.com/support/cleanmymac2/knowledgebase/how-to-uninstall-cleanmymac- 2

What is MacSwapper?

Try resetting the SMC Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

Have you started from your recovery partition (Command-R) and tried to repair the hard drive? Repair the drive not the permissions.

You need more ram. 4gb isn't enough to comfortably run Yosemite.

It doesn't appear that Time Machine completed the backup, reinstalling OS X is never a good idea without a backup but I think that needs to happen at some point.

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