Very Slow Mini

[Hrothgar]

My late 2011 mini has gotten very slow lately. Chrome keeps freezing, I keep getting the pinwheel. Basic operations that used to be instantaneous now have a noticeable lag. I opened disc utility and I see that my HD is listed twice under the internal drives -- Macintosh HD and Mactintosh HS - Data. Is this normal? Also, under the 1.12 TB button, it says "Shared by 5 volumes." I don't think my HD is partitioned at all, although there are two user accounts. Any way to know what this is?

Any suggestions on how to clean or speed up the computer? (Other than putting in an ssd.)
It's 2.6 GHz, dual core intel core i5; 16 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3, if that helps.

Very

 

[Neodym]

1.12TB sounds like a FUSION‘ed 128GB with a 1TB platter hard drive. So it is probably okay that you see two drives. However, you seem to run the (relatively) new APFS file system, which is optimized for SSD and has a rather mediocre performance on platter hard drives iirc. With all the housekeeping being done in the background by APFS, maybe your dual-core system is pushed to its limits.

On the other hand this could “simply” be your hard drive(s) and/or Ram failing, so you should make sure to have a current backup just in case, before you investigate further.

To then investigate further, could you please open the system monitor and look for CPU and Ram performance while the lags occur? Next step would be to run Apple Diagnostics to search for faulty Ram and/or a dying hard drive (or perhaps other failing components). You could also check the temperatures of your system with one of the available monitor tools and download the Intel power gadget, giving more detailed information surrounding your CPU.

 

[chrfr]

My late 2011 mini has gotten very slow lately. Chrome keeps freezing, I keep getting the pinwheel. Basic operations that used to be instantaneous now have a noticeable lag. I opened disc utility and I see that my HD is listed twice under the internal drives -- Macintosh HD and Mactintosh HS - Data. Is this normal? Also, under the 1.12 TB button, it says "Shared by 5 volumes." I don't think my HD is partitioned at all, although there are two user accounts. Any way to know what this is?

Any suggestions on how to clean or speed up the computer? (Other than putting in an ssd.)
It's 2.6 GHz, dual core intel core i5; 16 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3, if that helps.

View attachment 918179 Very

I think you might have a 2014 Mini, not a 2011. The partition structure you’re seeing is normal for macOS Catalina, which your computer is running.

 

[Hrothgar]

You're right - 2014. (My MBP is 2011.)
Here's my hard drive speed test. I'll try to look at the system monitor.

 

[Boyd01]

You could split the 128gb SSD from the hard drive like I did and that will really speed it up. Here's an old thread I started on the subject. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS unless you have good backups and know what you're doing. It is all done with software and you don't have to open up the Mini.

Split the fusion drive on my "new" 2014 Mini?

Couldn't resist any longer and just ordered a new 2014 2.8ghz/8gb/1tb fusion Mini on sale at B&H Photo for $529. Have been using a base 2014 1.4ghz/4gb/500gb HD mini as an iTunes server for the past 3 years and have been concerned about what I might replace it with when it inevitably dies (it...

forums.macrumors.com

Your disk results look pretty good to me when you consider that the 1tb hard drive will only give you about 100MB/sec by itself. But I wouldn't expect the Blackmagic test to give very accurate results on a fusion drive, since it just reads and writes to the same file constantly. That's what a fusion drive is really good at, because it puts frequently used data on the SSD.

Here's what I get from the 128gb SSD that I split from the fusion drive on my 2014 i5 2.8ghz/8gb Mini.

After you split the 128gb SSD, you can use the 1tb hard disk for additional storage (which will be slow) or add an external SSD. My 2014 Mini is an iTunes server, and I have all my media on a 4tb external USB SSD. Here's what I get from it.

 

[Hrothgar]

It's doing other weird things. A couple of times, it wouldn't open a Finder window. Today, I couldn't switch my output speaker. And when I tried to restart, it took forever.

What's Apple Diagnostics? I don't see it in Utilities.

 

[DeltaMac]

Diagnostics are built-in.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

 

[Micky Do]

My late 2011 mini has gotten very slow lately. Chrome keeps freezing, I keep getting the pinwheel. Basic operations that used to be instantaneous now have a noticeable lag. I opened disc utility and I see that my HD is listed twice under the internal drives -- Macintosh HD and Mactintosh HS - Data. Is this normal? Also, under the 1.12 TB button, it says "Shared by 5 volumes." I don't think my HD is partitioned at all, although there are two user accounts. Any way to know what this is?

Any suggestions on how to clean or speed up the computer? (Other than putting in an ssd.)
It's 2.6 GHz, dual core intel core i5; 16 GB 1600 Mhz DDR3, if that helps.

View attachment 918179 Very

The couple of times my 2009 Mac Mini got very slow, it was cured with a clean out of the dust accumulated inside.

It is probably due a clean out now, but has been in storage since late last year. When I do get to set up a Mac Mini again (hopefully sooner rather than later) I will likely have the 2009 cleaned out and have a larger HDD installed, then run it a couple more years..... or I'll replace it with the latest model.

 

[Hrothgar]

Can I run Apple Diagnostics if I have a bluetooth keyboard? Will the "d" work before the system boots up?