Everything is beach ball slow. I've deleted several hundred gigs in files.



Macintosh HD Info
Kind: Volume
Version: 10.15.7
Format APFS
Capacity: 2.12 TB
Available: 626.12 GB (584.86 GB purgeable)
Used: 2,070,515,990,528 bytes (2.07 TB on disk)

(PS - Am I correct that moving files to iCloud disk provides no space savings?)

Run Disk Utility First Aid on the Container and both volumes in the Container. Then Reboot the Mac. This worked for me the last 3 times I had such problems.

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Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

Its showing 2.07 GB used?

Assuming you have restarted?

Try a pram reset. shutdown, unplug from wall, wait 1 minute, plug back in, restart

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Quote
stephen
Everything is beach ball slow...

Things to try...

1. Slowdowns are an early sign of HD failure. You have a Fusion drive (combines a hard drive with a small SSD) and a lot of the time one or the other component will fail. Run a SMART check:
[www.volitans-software.com]

2. Run a scan with Malwarebytes (free for personal use).
[www.malwarebytes.com]

3. Eject/Disconnect all peripherals excepting mouse/keyboard and reboot.

4. Do a safe-boot (hold down the shift key after the boot-chime) and then at the login screen, reboot. This time do not hold down the shift key.

5. Don't ever run Google Chrome. (Best advice to avoid slowdowns on any platform.)

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Quote
Sarcany

Quote
stephen
Everything is beach ball slow...

Things to try...

1. Slowdowns are an early sign of HD failure. You have a Fusion drive (combines a hard drive with a small SSD) and a lot of the time one or the other component will fail. Run a SMART check:
[www.volitans-software.com]

Thanks for these suggestions. SMART check said the HDD drive is Failing.

F&*^*K! I really want to wait on the Spring iMac M1 (or M2).

Can I boot from an external drive temporarily with my 27" iMac (Retina, 5K, Late 2015) until this spring when the new iMacs come?

If so, what drive at OWC would you recommend? Will definitely be supporting our sponsor.

How do I do that? Would I use my Time Machine backup from early December? (Last time it would back up properly.)

Or just do a clean OS install on an external?

Quote
stephen

Quote
Sarcany

Quote
stephen
Everything is beach ball slow...

Things to try...

1. Slowdowns are an early sign of HD failure. You have a Fusion drive (combines a hard drive with a small SSD) and a lot of the time one or the other component will fail. Run a SMART check:
[www.volitans-software.com]

Thanks for these suggestions. SMART check said the HDD drive is Failing.

F&*^*K! I really want to wait on the Spring iMac M1 (or M2).

So, there's failing and there's FAILING.

Which do you have?

A few bad sectors should appear as a yellow fail-warning. You're on-notice, but you've probably got a lot of time to plan and get your backups done.

A lot of bad sectors (dozens or hundreds) may still appear as a yellow fail-warning, but it means you need to get your backups in order NOW.

A red fail-warning means you're lucky if you can copy your data off before the drives drops off the bus and it's all gone.

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This: [imgur.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2021 09:12PM by stephen.

Yeah, that's a "house is on fire" situation.

How are your backups?

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You can permanently boot from an external drive if you want.

How big do you need?

Love OWC for many many things, even bought my last iMac & ram from them, and a dual bay RAID enclosure just a few months ago. But for what you might want/need... they arent my first pick.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Quote
Sarcany
Yeah, that's a "house is on fire" situation.

How are your backups?

Time Machine has one from Dec 7. Been struggling to update since the disk issues.

Carbon Copy Cloner will try 3 times to copy a file. Many of your errors are DMA read/write types. It may be that CCC can recover a lot of files that Time Machine would not back up.

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You may just want to get an external drive such as this Seagate for $89 and run the computer from that until you are able to get the model that you really want.
[www.costco.com] I had something similar happen, but I chose a Samsung 500GB SSD as I had about 500-600 free on my failing 1TB internal drive.
It felt like a new machine!

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The arts are not luxuries but assets that give way more than they cost.
--Ronald Tucker on YouTube

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.
--Frank Zappa



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2021 09:46AM by Sam3.

Stephen,

Definitely invest in an external SSD and use it as a boot drive.

You can buy a pre-built model like this SanDisk:

[www.costco.com]

Or, roll your own by purchasing a quality NVME M.2 SSD and a quality M.2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 enclosure.

Connect it to one of the USB 3 ports on the machine. You won't get the maxiumum benefit of the drive but it'll be wicked fast compared to a platter drive and it'll be more futureproof than an external drive based on a 2.5" SSD. In the event you move to a newer iMac, move the drive to a Thunderbolt port and it'll be at its maximum. Not necessarily Thunderbolt 3 speeds but far faster than plain ol USB 3.0 speeds.

Robert

external SSD boots my iMac just fine even though it's USB 2 not 3.

If I have a good Time Machine backup from Dec 7, shouldn’t I just use that?

I haven’t perceived any file loss, although of course it is possible.

Trying CCC.

update? what did you go with external? you really don't want a spinner if you can help it..

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Here’s the update. I did a Carbon Copy Clone onto a new external over Christmas break.

It said maybe a couple of dozen files had issues, permission type stuff.

I rebooted in Recovery Mode and ran Disk Utility. It said the Fusion Drive checked out okay.

Still getting slowness and spinning though.

Going to do another SMART test.

Currently using the Carbon Copy Cloned 5 GB Seagate USB external and no crashes. Very slow performance via old-school USB but no crashes for several days.

Now figuring out next steps to get me through the spring until the new 27" iMac comes out.

Either, settle for very slow performance or:

1. Buy OWC internal SSD and get my work Mac guru to help me swap drives (he says he's done it and can do it)
2. Buy a Thunderbolt external SSD and use until the new 27" iMacs come out
3. Buy a 24" iMac and use it for a few months and resell when the 27's come out.

An external SSD I can use later seems to have some appeal.