Questions regarding slow iMac (late 2014)

[Ocvlvs]

Hi.

I've had a look at similar threads, but most issues like mine seems to be on "ontouched" iMacs. As described below, this one already have had an upgrade:



I have an iMac late 2014, 27 inch, Quad Core i7. 32 GB RAM running OS 11.7.9 on an internal Fusion(?) drive. Plenty of free disk space (700 GB).

It became super slow at one point, and we sent it in, changing the old drive to the current one, which I believe is a Fusion type.

It ran pretty well until the summer of 2022, but then it gradually became slower. At one point I could barely use it at all, opening a Finder window would take minutes.


I recently updated the OS to 11.7.9 and it seems to be a little better now, but still not near as good as it should be with the stats described above. Looking at activity monitor, there's no RAM-hog or anything like that and the CPU is within normal limits.



Here's a snapshot of the drive info:

MacOS drive info:

DiskDrill results:

S.M.A.R.T. scan results:

Etre Check results:

EtreCheckPro version: 6.8.1 (68024)Report generated: 2023-09-15 12:21:01 - Pastebin.com

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

pastebin.com

What do you guys think?

Is it worth trying to do a factory reset? Or is "back to the doctor" my best option here?


All the best,

O

 

[Fishrrman]

The answer is simple.

STOP BOOTING from the internal drive.

Get an EXTERNAL SSD (they're downright cheap) and boot and run from the external SSD.

ANYONE can do this, it's little more than child's play on the Mac.

For an SSD, I recommend this:

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, Portable SSD, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0R/AM, 2022), Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water** and dust* resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ achieve soaring sequential read/write...

www.amazon.com

With an external SSD, you will get read speeds around 420-430MBps.
What are you getting RIGHT NOW?
(use the free "BlackMagic Speed Test" software to find out.

 

[RokinAmerica]

Replace the fusion drive with a SSD.

 

[Ocvlvs]

The answer is simple.

STOP BOOTING from the internal drive.

Get an EXTERNAL SSD (they're downright cheap) and boot and run from the external SSD.

ANYONE can do this, it's little more than child's play on the Mac.

For an SSD, I recommend this:

SAMSUNG T7 Shield 1TB, Portable SSD, up to 1050MB/s, USB 3.2 Gen2, Rugged, IP65 Rated, for Photographers, Content Creators and Gaming, External Solid State Drive (MU-PE1T0R/AM, 2022), Blue

Samsung T7 Shield Portable SSD delivers high performance on-the-go, not matter the terrain. It has an IP65 rating for water** and dust* resistance, with Dynamic Thermal Guard to manage heat control. Transfer huge files instantly. USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ achieve soaring sequential read/write...

www.amazon.com

With an external SSD, you will get read speeds around 420-430MBps.
What are you getting RIGHT NOW?
(use the free "BlackMagic Speed Test" software to find out.

Thanks!

I'd be happy to do that if it fixes the issue...

Well, the Black Magic Test will never finish, as it's hoovering at a whopping 10-ish MBPS on WRITE speed..

EDIT: The final results were:

WRITE: 7.3 MBps
READ: 403.7 MBps

 

[Bigwaff]

Fusion drive failing. Boot from external SSD and don’t use the Fusion drive for any reason if you value your data. @Fishrrman speaks the truth.

 

[Ocvlvs]

OK, so I got hold of an SSD. Now trying to make it the boot disk (using the restore from the old drive method).

It's not the end of the world if I have to make a clean re-install of OS, but I figured it was worth a try.

Not sure how long it usually takes, I had two options "MacOS" and "MacOS Data", I chose the first one.



At any rate, it's been going for more than an hour now and have been sitting around the "95%" mark for the last 40 minutes...

Not sure if it will ever finish... SSD's still flashing blue though...

 

[Ocvlvs]

Update:

OK, so the restoring finally finished and I have selected the new SSD as boot disk.

Looking at BlackMagic I now get a write AND READ speed of around 30 mbps.

Seems like the USB port is slowing things down?

 

[Fishrrman]

The Sabrent enclosure (as referenced to in reply 6 above) is a good choice.
I have more than one of them.

If what you're doing now doesn't work, I'll outline another way to do it that I predict WILL work.

1. Boot from the internal drive (for now).

2. Open disk utility. Go to the view menu and choose "Show all devices". VERY IMPORTANT STEP -- do not miss this!

3. Look at the list on the left. Locate the physical SSD.

4. Click on the SSD ONE time to select it, then click "erase".

5. Erase it to APFS, GUID partition format.

6. OK, next step -- download SuperDuper by clicking this link:
download
(SD is FREE to use for the purpose we're going to use it for)

7. SuperDuper is one of the easiest-to-use Mac apps in existence. Launch it and accept the default settings.

8. Use SD to clone the contents of the internal drive to the SSD.
It will take a while.

9. When done, go to the startup disk preference pane, and set the SSD to be the boot drive.

10. Reboot. Do you get "a good boot" to the SSD? If so, you're done.

 

[Fishrrman]

RE the OP post 7 above:
If you're only getting 30MBps from an SSD, you've done something wrong.

Get the enclosure and try again.

 

[Ocvlvs]

I deleted the enclosure part, I realised what it was for... The SSD I have is a Samsung, pretty close to the one you referred to in post 2. It's currently plugged straight into the regular USB port on the back of the iMac.

So no enclosure needed for this one..


The guy in the video I followed formatted the SSD in Mac OS Ext... Not sure if that's bad..

(

)


I'll look through your 10-step rocket and get back..

 

[Ocvlvs]

OK, I've followed the 9 steps, but on step 9, my new SSD is not available as a Startup Disk. Only the original one is there. (if you were referring to the Startup Disk option in System settings)

EDIT: I restarted the computer pressing down CMD+R and selected the SSD from there instead.

Booted from the SSD. The disk write/read remains the same. 30/30. Not sure if Black Magic is measuring the wrong drive. I cannot select the new SSD in the Black Magic menu. It just says that the selected location is "read only"....

The SSD in itself seems to work just fine. And a lot quicker than the old one..

 

[Fishrrman]

Could it be the connecting cable?

 

[Ocvlvs]

Could it be the connecting cable?

That was it... I managed to fish out a 1.0....


Now running LIKE A CHARM.

Thanks a lot for your input!

 

[Fishrrman]

RE the cable:
USB3 "a" cables have a BLUE tip at the end.
Older, slower USB "a" cables have a tip that is usually white or black, but NOT blue.

 

[icemantx]

Might be time to upgrade to another Mac. 11.7.10 seems to be the last update for Big Sur and the fusion drive is a problematic technology solution compared to modern SSD options.

I had a late 2014 27" iMac that I upgraded the 3 TB Fusion Drive to a 2 TB Crucial SSD a few years back and that did breathe new life into it. However, with security updates for Big Sur a thing of the past and OS updates not supported, I sold mine last March and upgraded to the M2 Pro Mac mini + Apple Studio Display.

Very happy ever since moving to the M2 Pro. Night and day performance improvements plus current on OS versions.

 

[Ocvlvs]

RE the cable:
USB3 "a" cables have a BLUE tip at the end.
Older, slower USB "a" cables have a tip that is usually white or black, but NOT blue.

This, I know. What I didn't know was that I even had a USB 2.0 lying around!

 

[Ocvlvs]

Might be time to upgrade to another Mac. 11.7.10 seems to be the last update for Big Sur and the fusion drive is a problematic technology solution compared to modern SSD options.

I had a late 2014 27" iMac that I upgraded the 3 TB Fusion Drive to a 2 TB Crucial SSD a few years back and that did breathe new life into it. However, with security updates for Big Sur a thing of the past and OS updates not supported, I sold mine last March and upgraded to the M2 Pro Mac mini + Apple Studio Display.

Very happy ever since moving to the M2 Pro. Night and day performance improvements plus current on OS versions.

My main use will be digital painting so I'll probably let this run for a few more years... I actually had a new update for Big Sur just a few days ago.

 

[icemantx]

My main use will be digital painting so I'll probably let this run for a few more years... I actually had a new update for Big Sur just a few days ago.

That was 11.7.10 as mentioned in my post which was released in Sept 2023. Nothing wrong with keeping your iMac going for a while if you have a good use for it and are comfortable with the OS version you are on.