iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) EtreCheck finds Major Problem: Failing hard drive

[Jayhawk Raven]

My iMac has really slowed down over the past few days. I ran EtreCheck today to see if I could find out why. It found a MAJOR problem: Your iMac has an older, mechanical hard disk that appears to be failing. (Full report attached).

Is it for sure a failing Hard Drive? I have time machine backups all the time, so I should have good backups. I am still under AppleCare. Will Apple replace the drive before it actually fails based on EtreCheck? What else do I need to check before making an appointment at a genius bar?



EtreCheck version: 5.1 (5020)

Report generated: 2018-12-14 18:23:00

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 21:33

Performance: Poor

Sandbox: Enabled

Full drive access: Disabled


Problem: Computer is too slow


Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.


Failing hard drive - This machine has an older, mechanical hard disk that appears to be failing.


Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.


Configuration profiles present - This machine has configuration profiles. These are sometimes used by adware and malware.

Out of RAM - This machine is running short on RAM and has a mechanical hard drive, reducing the speed of the virtual memory system.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Limited drive access - More information may be available with Full Drive Access.


Hardware Information:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

iMac Model: iMac18,3

1 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-7500) CPU: 4-core

16 GB RAM - Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400 ok

BANK 0/DIMM1 - 4 GB DDR4 2400 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 2400 ok

BANK 1/DIMM1 - 4 GB DDR4 2400 ok


Video Information:

Radeon Pro 570 - VRAM: 4096 MB

iMac 3200 x 1800

DELL 2007FP 1280 x 960


Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0032L 28.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI-Express 8.0 GT/s x2 NVM Express

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 315 MB

disk0s2 [Fusion Drive] 27.55 GB

disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 326.00 GB (311.14 GB used)

disk0s3 - B*******X (Journaled HFS+) 134 MB


disk1 - APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 7200 RPM)

Internal SATA 6 Gigabit Serial ATA

disk1s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk1s2 [Fusion Drive] 299.36 GB

disk2 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 326.00 GB (311.14 GB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery HD (Journaled HFS+) [Recovery] 650 MB

disk1s4 [APFS Container] 699.98 GB

disk3 [APFS Virtual drive] 699.98 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)

disk3s1 - i*********n (APFS) (Shared - 513.66 GB used)

disk3s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)

disk3s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)

disk3s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 9.66 GB used)


disk4 - WD Elements 25A1 4.00 TB

External USB 5 Gbit/s USB

disk4s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk4s2 - W********************a (Journaled HFS+) 4.00 TB (1.95 TB used)


disk5 - USB DISK 32.21 GB

External USB 480 Mbit/s

disk5s1 - P*********9 32.21 GB (10.15 GB used)


disk6 - USB DISK 32.21 GB

External USB 480 Mbit/s

disk6s1 - T*********R (MS-DOS FAT32) 32.21 GB (7.67 GB used)


Mounted Volumes:

disk2 - Macintosh HD 326.00 GB (14.86 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /Volumes/Macintosh HD


disk3s1 - i*********n 699.98 GB (175.92 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /


disk3s4 - VM [APFS VM] (Shared - 9.66 GB used)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm


disk4s2 - W********************a 4.00 TB (2.05 TB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /Volumes/W********************a


disk5s1 - P*********9 32.21 GB (22.05 GB free)

Mount point: /Volumes/P*********9


disk6s1 - T*********R 32.21 GB (24.53 GB free)

MS-DOS FAT32

Mount point: /Volumes/T*********R


Network:

Interface en0: Ethernet

Interface en6: iPad

Interface en5: iPhone

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge


System Software:

macOS Mojave 10.14.1 (18B75)

Time since boot: About 6 hours


Configuration Profiles:

This computer has configuration profiles installed.


Security:

GatekeeperEnabled

System Integrity ProtectionEnabled


Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.brother.LOGINserver.plist

Executable: /Library/Printers/Brother/Utilities/Server/LOGINserver.app/Contents/MacOS/LOGINserver

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.dymo.dls.webservice.plist

Executable: /Library/Frameworks/DYMO/SDK/DYMO.DLS.Printing.Host.app/Contents/MacOS/DYMO.DLS.Printing.Host

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK


32-bit Applications:

3 32-bit apps


Kernel Extensions:

/System/Library/Extensions

DymoUsbPrinterClassDriver.kext (1.1 - SDK 10.11)


System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded] 15 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 164 Apple tasks

[Running] 120 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded] 37 Apple tasks

[Loaded] 175 Apple tasks

[Running] 121 Apple tasks

[Other] 2 Apple tasks


Launch Agents:

[Running] com.dymo.dls.webservice.plist (? 77c41eb - installed 2017-09-12)

[Running] com.brother.LOGINserver.plist (? a1772de2 - installed 2017-09-13)

[Loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-11-19)


Launch Daemons:

[Loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-11-19)

[Running] com.dymo.pnpd.plist (Sanford, L.P. - installed 2017-09-12)

[Loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple - installed 2018-10-24)

[Loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-10-10)


User Launch Agents:

[Loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2018-12-10)

[Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-07-17)

[Running] com.c-command.SpamSieve.LaunchAgent.plist (C-Command Software, LLC - installed 2018-11-23)


User Login Items:

Alfred 3.app (Running with Crayons Ltd - installed 2017-10-18)

(/Applications/Alfred 3.app)


Dropbox.app (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2018-12-13)

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)


Internet Plug-ins:

DYMO Safari Addin: (installed 2018-03-09)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-11-21)

DYMO NPAPI Addin: 1.0 (installed 2018-03-09)


Safari Extensions:

Todoist - App Store (installed 2018-11-15)


Time Machine:

Time Machine information not available without Full Drive Access.


Performance:

System Load: 1.63 (1 min ago) 1.72 (5 min ago) 1.46 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O speed: 0.21 MB/s

File system: 120.97 seconds (timed out)

Write speed: 56 MB/s

Read speed: 55 MB/s


CPU Usage:

Type Overall

System 5 %

User 7 %

Idle 89 %


Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count) CPU (Source - Location)

Other processes 14.79 % (?)

Safari 8.23 % (Apple)

com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5) 6.59 % (Apple)

iTunes 4.74 % (Apple)

Dropbox 3.24 % (Dropbox, Inc.)


Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

EtreCheck 618 MB (App Store)

App Store 527 MB (Apple)

Safari 503 MB (Apple)

Microsoft Word 376 MB (Microsoft Corporation)

Mail 281 MB (Apple)


Top Processes by Network Use:

Process Input / Output (Source - Location)

iTunes 337 MB / 2 KB (Apple)

com.apple.WebKit.Networking 8 MB / 199 KB (Apple)

Dropbox 1 MB / 714 KB (Dropbox, Inc.)

cloudd 955 KB / 284 KB (Apple)

mDNSResponder 776 KB / 452 KB (Apple)


Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM 4.46 GB

Free RAM 1.66 GB

Used RAM 11.54 GB

Cached files 2.79 GB

Swap Used 16 MB


Software Installs (past 30 days):

Install Date Name (Version)

2018-11-19 Microsoft AutoUpdate

2018-11-19 Microsoft Outlook for Mac

2018-11-19 Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac

2018-11-19 Microsoft Excel for Mac

2018-11-19 Microsoft OneNote for Mac

2018-11-19 Microsoft Word for Mac

2018-11-20 Todoist (7.1.1)

2018-12-06 Gatekeeper Configuration Data (157)

2018-12-12 XProtectPlistConfigData (2101)

2018-12-13 MRTConfigData (1.38)

2018-12-14 EtreCheck (5.1)


Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

Directory /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports is not accessible without Full Drive Access.


End of report

 

[jerwin]

failing Hard Drive?

I believe this refers to SMART status. You can check this in disk utility

or in System Information (about this mac, etc)

If your smart status is something other than "verified", you may wish to read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

 

[etresoft]

If EtreCheck had detected a SMART failure, it would have said so. EtreCheck is assuming your hard drive has failed because of this kind of performance:

File system: 120.97 seconds (timed out)
Write speed: 56 MB/s
Read speed: 55 MB/s

I don’t know why your hard drive is running so poorly. It may be because of the non-standard partitioning you have setup. It is difficult to see in this forum. EtreCheck is optimized for the new Apple Support Communities. If you want to post it here, you should probably wrap it in some kind of “pre” tag or something to get it to display with a monospaced font. If your indentations were showing up properly, then it would be more obvious.

You have one of those tiny 28 GB SSDs fusion drives. That will speed up your booting, but not much else. But your Fusion drive seems to have been split up. Your SSD is fused with 300 GB of your mechanical hard drive. That fusion volume is formatted as HFS. I assume it has High Sierra or something installed on it. The remaining 700 GB of your mechanical hard drive is running APFS with Mojave.

Even a plain-jane mechanical hard drive should have better performance than that. It may be that APFS is just really confused with this partitioning.

EtreCheck thinks that you may have a Time Machine volume. Hopefully that is true. You need to wipe that machine, restore your original partitioning, recreate your Fusion drive, and reinstall Mojave. Apple will certainly not do anything based on an EtreCheck report, but they should be able to figure out this without it and do what is necessary to correct it. Just make sure to have a Time Machine backup before taking it in. You are definitely going to have to restore from it.

 

[mikehalloran]

Apple uses a version of TechTool Pro. If the drive has problems, they will show up. Since you are under AppleCare, get it to Apple to verify and repair as necessary.

Have a Time Machine backup. If Apple replaces your drive, they will not save your data.

It is quite possible for a SMART status of drive to be “verified” in Disk Utility while failing miserably. I have replaced over a hundred over the years.

That is probably not your problem, though. You decided to partition your drive without having the slightest idea of what you are doing and no understanding of APFS. That is the only thing this report tells me but it’s screaming this.

You need to put it back.