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Slow iMac

K

kevhui

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 24, 2008
172
0
Starting from about 2 months ago, I notice my 24" iMac is getting slower and slower e.g. I always see the "beach ball" even when I surf the web, and hear the HD sound.

I purchased my iMac in 2008 with 4GB RAM and 500GB HD.

I was thinking to redo a clean install but not sure would this help - it will take me a lot of time to re-install the OS, applications and I worry about losing my emails and photos. I use Time Machine but never try to restore the whole Mail and iPhotos, so I worry.

Any advice would highly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Reinstalling Snow Leopard would help. Cant really say by how much but assuming there are no hardware faults if can feel a lot faster. As for reinstalling software i cant help much there as i set my time machine up only to back up my media I only use a few apps so i prefer to re download them after reinstall. Time machine should save your photos for you. Your emails it will only back up if you have a copy on your hard drive already
 
You can just reinstall OS X, it will not delete your data. I did that few weeks ago when I had slow downs. Now they are gone.
 
Mr. Incredible said:
How would you reinstall OSX? I'm noticing the same thing sometimes.
Click to expand...

Just insert the disc and install. In Snow Leopard, you have to use Disk Utility in order to perform a clean install. With Leopard and older, it gives you options for Erase & Install and Archive & Install so in that case, select Archive & Install.

Takes like an hour and everything will remain the same
 
Sorry so re-install Snow Leopard with its Disk Utility would also leave my apps and data untouched? I am using Snow Leopard so I want to be sure.

Thanks.
 
kevhui said:
Sorry so re-install Snow Leopard with its Disk Utility would also leave my apps and data untouched? I am using Snow Leopard so I want to be sure.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just insert the disc and install. Disk Utility is only needed if you want to get rid of your apps and data
 
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