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2010 iMac 21" running super slow - Help!

D

dpavid

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 17, 2004
144
12
Mililani, Hawaii
Just over the past week, our 21" 2010 iMac is running super slow. I backed up the entire computer overnight on another back, erased the hard drive, and tried a fresh install of Mac OS X. Still runs super slow. The spinning Beach Ball of death takes 30-60 seconds to execute simple task like opening apps and opening and closing folders.

I think the hard drive is bad and needs a replacement. I did upgrade the RAM to 12GB with Crucial about 2 years ago.

Any other ideas I should try before wasting my time and opening it to replace the HD with a SSD?

Thanks in advance.
 
Any times it ever completely freezes? (System Lockup)

Did you trying running the Apple Hardware test?

See if Disk Utility reports a failing drive.

12gb is more then enough for Mavericks, and a 2010 shouldn't be "slow" by any means with just a fresh install.

If you can, I'd just install the SSD now it will make a world of differences.
 
Nyy8 said:
Any times it ever completely freezes? (System Lockup)

Did you trying running the Apple Hardware test?

See if Disk Utility reports a failing drive.

12gb is more then enough for Mavericks, and a 2010 shouldn't be "slow" by any means with just a fresh install.

If you can, I'd just install the SSD now it will make a world of differences.
Click to expand...

I will try these!
 
What does the smart status say?

I always run HD Tune in my Windows partition every six months to ensure the integrity of my drive is up to par. It looks for any bad sectors and gives you information on the current health status of your drive.

However, if you plan to replace the drive regardless, as others have said, it would definitely be a good idea to replace it with an SSD. You can get them on the cheap these days.
 
Replaced with a 512GB SSD. iMac is screaming now. It was the hard drive. It was nearly 4 years old. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Excellent. Was going to say I agree with other posters' comments about installing SSD, which made sense to do if you were having to replace the HDD anyway. And as you said, it was the HDD. :)
 
macuser453787 said:
Excellent. Was going to say I agree with other posters' comments about installing SSD, which made sense to do if you were having to replace the HDD anyway. And as you said, it was the HDD. :)
Click to expand...

i have read several comments about installing/replacing the HD with a SSD, how difficult is this ? i have good mechanical skills, can i doo this and are there instructions anywhere on how to do it ?

thank you all for your assistance. :apple:
 
MacM4ODA said:
i have read several comments about installing/replacing the HD with a SSD, how difficult is this ? i have good mechanical skills, can i doo this and are there instructions anywhere on how to do it ?

thank you all for your assistance. :apple:
Click to expand...

It's not difficult. I think it took me about 30 minutes the first time I did it on an iMac. Instructions are available at the iFixit website.
 
MacM4ODA said:
are there instructions anywhere on how to do it ?
Click to expand...

Everything you need is here: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel

I have always followed the iFixit guides when replacing HDD with SSD in Mid 2007 and Mid 2011 iMacs. They have really great guides, very detailed, with photos.

I have never really bothered with an adapter for 2.5" SSD drive. There are no mechanical parts, so mounting it this way is just as secure:

X774BIV.jpg]


One more thing: if you still have the original iMac box (with those white styrofoam securing blocks), you may use it to safely hold the glass and LCD screen:

23KkYN9l.jpg
 
MacM4ODA said:
i have read several comments about installing/replacing the HD with a SSD, how difficult is this ? i have good mechanical skills, can i doo this and are there instructions anywhere on how to do it ?

thank you all for your assistance. :apple:
Click to expand...

Which iMac model are you working on? The 2010 model discussed above has a screen held on by magnets while the current design is glued on, but either way, the SSD swap is do-able.
 
g-7 said:
Everything you need is here: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel

I have always followed the iFixit guides when replacing HDD with SSD in Mid 2007 and Mid 2011 iMacs. They have really great guides, very detailed, with photos.

I have never really bothered with an adapter for 2.5" SSD drive. There are no mechanical parts, so mounting it this way is just as secure:

]Image

One more thing: if you still have the original iMac box (with those white styrofoam securing blocks), you may use it to safely hold the glass and LCD screen:

Image
Click to expand...

i went to ifixit, ow i am really confused,


Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 3 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.20f4
Serial Number (system): XXXXXXXXXXXX deleted due to security purposes.
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-001B63BD17AF

is there enough info here for you all to help me ID the versions, there are 18 different models shown at ifixit ? this is what confuses me !

thank you all.
 
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