iMac painfully slow - spinning wheel help

[Sideshow Hob]

Hi all,

I am running a 2013 iMac 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, *GB RAM however in recent months it seems everything has ground to a halt. My startup takes about 10 minutes before anything loads - I get the spinning wheel of death for ages, even with simple tasks - like opening safari. If I have try and open two programs everything just stops. Things I have tried recently;

1. Ran malwarebytes scan - no issues
2. Ran disk check using first aid disk utility (no red lines)
3. Activity monitor appears to be fine, nothing crazy, just stays in green
4. I have removed all but one startup item (no difference)
5. PRAM reset (no difference)
5. I have 1TB of storage with 300 GB available


I have been scouring forums and blogs trying to find ways to improve performance but nothing seems to work. I would be really grateful if anyone was able to point me in the right direction. My home desktop is also my work computer so desperately need to sort. Thanks in advance!

Sideshow

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Sounds like your HDD is failing, first aid in disk utility doesn’t always pick it up..

 

[Jupeman]

How much RAM? I'm guessing "*" really is 8? If so, 8 should be enough... I concur with hard drive nearing its end...

 

[Funsize93]

You need to isolate:

1. Is it a system wide or user specific issue? Create a new admin user account and see if a new user experiences the same issue. If no, your user account may have an incorrect file, bug, corruption causing the slowness. If yes, we know its a system wide issue which could be a corrupted OS or a hardware fault.

2. Rule out and 3rd-party extensions/ kernels/ startup items and boot into safemode. Does the issue persists after another normal boot? If yes, I would recommend isolating a software/hardware issue (step 3). If no, then you know that a 3rd-party extensions/ kernels/ startup items are causing the problem.

3. Backup and erase and reinstall your mac and setup as new. If the issue persists with a fresh OS without user data being restored then you know you more than likely have a hardware issue. If issue is resolved after a fresh erase and reinstall then you know the issue was more than likely a OS bug/corruption or your user data being the cause.

 

[Weaselboy]

Sounds like your HDD is failing, first aid in disk utility doesn’t always pick it up..

I agree.... OP if you did not install anything or make any changes that brought on, and it just started all on its own, it does sound like a drive failing.

 

[Fishrrman]

The OP wrote:
"I have 1TB of storage with 300 GB available
I have been scouring forums and blogs trying to find ways to improve performance but nothing seems to work. I would be really grateful if anyone was able to point me in the right direction."

If the internal drive is starting to go bad on you, there are options.

You could pry the thing open and replace the drive.
But ... can be tricky work to do yourself.
And... too expensive to have a repair place do it.

If disk utility reports the drive as being ok... perhaps it's just the fact that you're trying to run High Sierra on a platter-based hard drive that is cause of the problem.

Platter-based drives are just "too marginal... too slow" to run the latest versions of the Mac OS very well. The OS will "run" -- but it will feel more like it's just "walking" instead of running.

Fastest, easiest, cheapest solution:
Buy an external USB3 SSD, plug it in, and set it up to become the boot drive.
Something like the Samsung t5 would do, or perhaps one of these:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ZTRY5IW?tag=delt-20&th=1

You don't have to get a 1tb SSD.
A 512gb or even 256gb will be "all you need".

Set the SSD up with the OS, your apps, your accounts.
BUT -- leave "large libraries" (such as movies, music and pictures) on the internal HDD.
They don't really need the speed.
The idea is to keep the SSD "lean and clean", so it will boot and run FAST.

Do this, and I predict you'll be very pleased with the performance boost...