Improving Performance

[buttongerald]

Greetings all.

I have been a Apple user for a number of years, however I took a short break and had a Windows based machine for some time and when I finally came back to OS X on my new iMac I had some catching up to do. My iMac is a late 2013 model, with 8GB of ram, Intel Iris Graphics, and a 2.7 Ghz i5 processor.

This machine runs great, but sometimes opening applications is a bit buggy. I find iMovie is really bad for this and runs sort of sluggish, even though it isn't really processing or organizing any files.

Is there anything additional I can do to improve the speed of my iMac? Processes to close or things to clear out? I don't download anything questionable, I strictly use iTunes and the App store, and on occasion Battle.net and Adobe Creative Cloud for all of my media and entertainment needs.

I will add that I have the current available stable release of OS X El Capitan, but I sure do miss OS X Mavericks. I wish I could go back to that, but oh well I suppose!

Any sort of tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Do you have a HDD, Fusion drive or SSD in the machine?

 

[buttongerald]

Do you have a HDD, Fusion drive or SSD in the machine?

Just the standard 1TB HDD that came with the iMac.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

There is your problem then. You need to upgrade to an SSD, but it will also make a world of a difference.

 

[Ebenezum]

I will add that I have the current available stable release of OS X El Capitan, but I sure do miss OS X Mavericks. I wish I could go back to that, but oh well I suppose!

Sure you can!

How easily is another question.

If you have a backup made before installing 10.11 its very easy. Process is explained in this Macworld article.

If you don't have prior backup then things will be more complicated...

 

[JohnDS]

Open Disk Utility, Click on First Aid and click on Yes when it asks if you want to repair your disk.

 

[buttongerald]

Sure you can!

How easily is another question.

If you have a backup made before installing 10.11 its very easy. Process is explained in this Macworld article.

If you don't have prior backup then things will be more complicated...

Sadly. I do not have a backup. .

When I upgraded over time from Mavericks to Yosemite, and from Yosemite to El Capitan, the factory reset also changed and now only installs El Capitan. Before upgrading though it still did let me go back to Mavericks, as I had it installed just prior to the release of El Capitan.

 

[CoastalOR]

Sadly. I do not have a backup. .
When I upgraded over time from Mavericks to Yosemite, and from Yosemite to El Capitan, the factory reset also changed and now only installs El Capitan. Before upgrading though it still did let me go back to Mavericks, as I had it installed just prior to the release of El Capitan.

Do you have Mavericks available on your App Store Purchased tab?

 

[buttongerald]

Do you have Mavericks available on your App Store Purchased tab?

Nope, as it came pre-installed on this iMac, so it was always on the restore partition, until El Capitan came out and changed it.

 

[DeltaMac]

What version is offered when you boot to Internet Recovery? (Restart, holding Option-Command-R)
You should boot to Apple's server, shown by the rotating globe instead of a white Apple icon.

 

[buttongerald]

What version is offered when you boot to Internet Recovery? (Restart, holding Option-Command-R)
You should boot to Apple's server, shown by the rotating globe instead of a white Apple icon.

I just tried this, didn't know it existed. It will allow me to install Mavericks! I am so very happy with this. Kudos to you. .

Kudos to all who gave input and advice in this thread as well! .

 

[CoastalOR]

Nope, as it came pre-installed on this iMac, so it was always on the restore partition, until El Capitan came out and changed it.

Here is an article that discusses how to go from El Capitan back to Yosemite (same principle to go from El Capitan back to Mavericks), but since you do not have a Mavericks Time Machine or Mavericks clone backup then it is a harder.

You can use Internet Recovery (command+option+r) to install the OS that your Mac shipped with (as always make sure you have a good backup in case things do not go well), which would be Mavericks (I assume?).

I think the process would be to:
1) Backup your El Capitan with Time Machine.
2) Boot to your Time Machine backup.
3) Use Disk Utility to Erase your internal drive (Macintosh HD ? = typical default name).
4) Shutdown and disconnect your Time Machine drive. Boot to Internet Recovery and install Mavericks.
5) Manually move your old data, settings, and apps (this is time consuming and I can't offer any detailed first hand experience since I have not had to do this since OS 9 - I keep many backups).

As Ebenezum said, you can get back to Mavericks, but it will not be easy with your limited resources.

 

[Ebenezum]

I just tried this, didn't know it existed. It will allow me to install Mavericks! I am so very happy with this. Kudos to you. .

Kudos to all who gave input and advice in this thread as well! .

Glad to help!

I'm assuming you will make backup the moment you have everything working right?

I recommend using at least two hard drives if your data is important. Also relaying only in Time Machine may not be the best idea because you cant boot Mac directly from Time Machine drive, consider making a clone of your iMacs drive with software such as Disk Utility, SuperDuper! or other such software...

 

[buttongerald]

Glad to help!

I'm assuming you will make backup the moment you have everything working right?

Yup. iPhotos and iMovie are back, and my data is safe. I never store media on the main hard drive, I use that for applications and such. All pictures and save files are kept external and or in the cloud, and since iTunes allows you to re-download your music all I had to do was login and re-add all my albums, tv shows, and movies.

Ever since coming back to Mavericks, I have noticed a HUGE performance gain. Apps open faster, Safari actually works, and I don't have a glitch anymore were System Preferences would just hang after clicking on it.

I'm quite happy here today.