Extreem HDD slowdown after Lion

[The-Pro]

Sup guys,

So I upgraded to Lion like three weeks ago. Since then I have noticed my hard drive has slowed down a lot. Quitting applications takes way longer, most of the time the Application name stays blue in the Menu Bar for several seconds before closing. It quite annoying frankly, especially because it beach balls a fair amount at the same time aswell. Boot time is approximately 15-20secs longer than in SL. Safari now bounces 4 times before opening, and I make sure to close every tab and window before quitting because I hate the fact it opens the recent ones (because I have slow internet - max 180KB/s- and it takes time to reload 20+ tabs). So Safari opens like it did in SL but just takes 4times as long. Safari window was open in SL before the icon landed on the dock again. My MBP is definitely slower than it used to be!!
I ran xbench out of curiosity if Lion increased performance anywhere and found that in the HDD test the HDD results were usually 2/3 to 1/2 of what they were in SL. not once did the uncached write (4K blocks) go over 78MB/s, whilst in SL average was 95MB/s. The sequential Uncached Read (256K blocks) is also half in Lion then it was in SL.
See the attached screenshots. First two screenshots are in Lion, third from Snow Leopard.

Just yesterday i deleted a whole lot of files, 50gb of movies in the iTunes folder which I actually deleted from iTunes and didn't even now the were still in the folder. I also deleted a bunch of iPod/iPhone backups and Caches. So now the used space has decreased to 100GB + 33GB Bootcamp. This is on a 7200rpm 500GB HDD, in a 2010 15" i7 MBP with 4GB RAM.
After the upgrade to Lion I repaired permissions, ran Onyx cache cleaning and all that stuff.

It bugs me, its not that snappy anymore

Ive read clean install usually helps, however:
If I do a clean install, can I then just migrate all my stuff over again so its exactly how it was before, with migration assistant? Will this be like a fresh install and fresh user, performance wise (approximately?) I don't have the time to drag stuff manually and reinstall apps. Aswell will a clean install get rid of my Bootcamp partition???

Cheers guys

 

[df2gadgetman]

I've updated my 2010 iMac 27" 2.93Ghz 256Gb SSD with OS X Lion and I've experienced slow access times and even the start up and shut down took a lot longer to execute. I reformatted and reinstalled Snow Leopard. I'm sticking with SL for now.

 

[The-Pro]

I've updated my 2010 iMac 27" 2.93Ghz 256Gb SSD with OS X Lion and I've experienced slow access times and even the start up and shut down took a lot longer to execute. I reformatted and reinstalled Snow Leopard. I'm sticking with SL for now.

Interesting. I figured that unchecking the "reopen windows when logging back in" in the Shut down box, will make the Shut down be as fast as it used to be. But still the rest is, like I posted, way slower. I was thinking about going back to SL, but then I already paid for Lion so I might aswell use it just want those performance issues solved.

 

[The-Pro]

Anyone else have any insight on what to do?

 

[Macsavvytech]

Anyone else have any insight on what to do?

Have a crack at doing a clean install using migration assistant, if you had the time a true clean install would be better( Really only takes 1-2hours and your won't regret it!). Going back to snowleopard would require a clean install anyway so you might as well have a clean install to Lion if you take that path.

 

[The-Pro]

Thanks,

As I just cleaned out my HDD, there is probably no crap left on it, and plus its only 100GB. So would a fresh user be that beneficial?

 

[gdevitry]

Try using the Disk Utility, then Repair Disk Permissions. This worked for my iMac (took 20 minutes and found lots of permissions issues). I think I rebooted after.

For a full disk repair, you can boot with the new USB Lion Recovery Disk Assistant (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433).

Cheers,
Greg

 

[The-Pro]

Try using the Disk Utility, then Repair Disk Permissions. This worked for my iMac (took 20 minutes and found lots of permissions issues). I think I rebooted after.

For a full disk repair, you can boot with the new USB Lion Recovery Disk Assistant (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433).

Cheers,
Greg

I did that several times already, didn't help. Thanks though

I want to make a USB stick to reinstall Lion. I have that utility from apple, but that makes an internet recovery disk thing. I have way slow internet so it takes hours and hours to download Lion, in that time I can't use my MBP which I'm working on at the moment. I need the Lion install.dmg thing. Where can I download that from now?? Like re-download it while I am in Lion.

 

[gdevitry]

This is only for a 1.1MB download. It does not bring down the entire Lion install. It will build a USB utility. The Recovery part has the Disk Utility built in (a menu just like on the old DVD/CD installers).

 

[The-Pro]

This is only for a 1.1MB download. It does not bring down the entire Lion install. It will build a USB utility. The Recovery part has the Disk Utility built in (a menu just like on the old DVD/CD installers).

Well yes I have that utility, but if I want to reinstall Lion, then it will have to download the entire system once I've booted into the USB recovery thing right??
So i just tried it, i made the USB key with the utility, i then follow the instructions to do ocean install of OSX Lion. Well it then starts downloading the entire system. With my internet that will take approximately twelve hours. in that time I will not be able to use my MBP because it is in the recovery boot thing.
What i wish to do is download the installESD.dmg and make a USB boot drive thing like in this link: http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from-a-usb-flash-drive/
That way I will be able to use my MBP for work in the same time as it is downloading Lion.

 

[gdevitry]

Yes... sorry missed that you wanted to re-install. Are you close to an Apple Store? Or might be able to get a free Apple USB from AppleCare since you just purchased Lion and are having difficulties.

 

[The-Pro]

Yes... sorry missed that you wanted to re-install. Are you close to an Apple Store? Or might be able to get a free Apple USB from AppleCare since you just purchased Lion and are having difficulties.

Yeh no problem I corrected my post makes more sense now

well apple store is about 1.5 hours away, its the one in munich and I live in the country Plus the geniuses there are not that keen on resolving and issue that quickly, I've been there heaps of times due to problems, half of the time the didn't believe me, exchanged wrong parts in my machines and stuff like that. its a nightmare there.

I have found this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3195222?start=0&tstart=0
on how to re-download the installer. Well I option click like the say but there is not activity nothing happens. grrrr

 

[The-Pro]

OK good news, i am now downloading the Lion installer. I will have a clean install done within the next 24 hours, as estimated download time right now is 13 hours

Ill post if for results, hopefully the speed issues will be resolved.

Thanks guys

 

[jamezr]

OK good news, i am now downloading the Lion installer. I will have a clean install done within the next 24 hours, as estimated download time right now is 13 hours

Ill post if for results, hopefully the speed issues will be resolved.

Thanks guys

Wow.13 hours? Really...that is slow...
Once your Lion download is done and before you start the upgrade/install process. Try burning the Lion dmg to a DVD.
I used this utility and it worked like a charm.
http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/

 

[The-Pro]

Wow.13 hours? Really...that is slow...
Once your Lion download is done and before you start the upgrade/install process. Try burning the Lion dmg to a DVD.
I used this utility and it worked like a charm.
http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/

Yeh its ridiculously slow, max download speed 56kb/s. Such a joke, i can't watch any video without letting it load first. really annoying. And guess what I'm paying for a connection with max 600kb/s download speed. I get 56kb/s cable. Real rip off. I pay for 600 because its cheaper then for 56

I completely forgot about making a DVD. I have so many USB drives but they are all in use, so i was like, dang gotta buy another one

Looks like a good utility, ill definitely use it

cheers

 

[The-Pro]

OK so the download was done way quicker than expected. I made a Lion USB key with the Utility you recommended. I then Booted into the Key. Erased my Macintosh HD partition then chose to install Lion. it took 20 minutes. I then migrated my data and users back over. Well some things feel different. Xbench is reporting other results, mostly better. Something I found out was that the whole user interface feels quicker when you turn on to always show the scroll bars. Xbench proved that its quicker, results in user interface test when not always showing scroll bars were about 360refresh/sec. Results with always showing scroll bars, 1.60 krefresh/sec.

Disk speed seems to have gone back up. Its in the 100 range most of the time now and opening stuff seems quicker.

Other things to report. Temperature handling is different. My MBP reached 80-85 degrees celsius and fans stay at 2500rpm. Before the clean install, and ever since I had this MBP, fans spun up to 4500-6000rpm at these temperatures. So now my mBP is way quieter, and the temps rant a problem as far as i know
all good so far,
cheers