Running El Capitan--weary of upgrading to Sierra--Please Help

I was going to buy a LaCie TB drive until I found out that they use 5400 RPM units in them. I guess that's why they're so cheap.

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And even at that, since ages ago now, it's been pretty well a crap shoot as to what brand or dive any of their storage drives actually contain.





- Patrick
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I remember what Randy Singer said about hard drives. It seems that there are fewer and fewer makers of hard drives.

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How's this for some names and numbers???
"More than 200 companies have manufactured HDDs over time. But consolidations have concentrated production into just three manufacturers today: Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Manufacturers_and_sales

List of defunct hard disk manufacturers

"At least 221 companies were hard disk drive manufacturers in the past.[1] Most of that industry has vanished through bankruptcy or mergers and acquisitions."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_hard_disk_manufacturers

WOW!!!






- Patrick
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Well Sierra Sucked! I could not use my Quickbooks(bought last year) and it was sluggish. It seemed faster, but graphically it was a step back. It seemed to stutter/jitter when switching/opening windows. Restored El Cap and back to normal. Thanks for the help but I'll wait till i'm forced to upgrade.

kilo15 said:

Well Sierra Sucked! I could not use my Quickbooks(bought last year) and it was sluggish. It seemed faster, but graphically it was a step back. It seemed to stutter/jitter when switching/opening windows. Restored El Cap and back to normal. Thanks for the help but I'll wait till i'm forced to upgrade.

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I do understand. I was forced to upgrade to Quickbooks 2016 when I upgraded to Sierra. There was some change to how Sierra handled a procedure QuickBooks needed. Imagine my surprise when I looked for potential issues I did not see Quickbooks 2013 listed but found out after I upgraded I could no longer access my accounts. That was an expensive discovery. QB 2016 runs fine and I have gotten use to the changes but I could have done without the expense.

Lisa

Well Sierra Sucked! I could not use my Quickbooks(bought last year) and it was sluggish.

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I'm not exactly surprised for a normal MacBook, but in Sierra's defense are you using the latest version of Quickbooks?

However, the comment at macupdate is interesting:
"NeartheredrocksApr 14, 2017+0Just for the record: The latest version of QuickBooks for Mac is "QuickBooks 2016 v17.1.13 R14" from February 2017, and it works very well with macOS 10.12 Sierra. "
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/10146/quickbooks

BTW: in my own Sierra experience, some things that seemed or were slow, actually speeded up a bit after being used for several days.

In my case however, the loss of some features (removed from Yosemite and later) were too annoying to continue using it. Unfortunately they'll probably never get fixed or changed, even with High Sierra that's on the near horizon.

And Lisa's expensive experience isn't too encouraging for any Mac OS upgrading Quickbooks user. Ouch!!





- Patrick
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Sorry, but anything expected from Intuit toward Mac users should not be taken lightly. I really can't think of any other company that over the years has annoyed me more than Intuit. Their support has always been dismal. Their cavalier attitude about what works with which version of OS X is well known. "Just upgrade... that will fix it". "Oh, you want a free upgrade or discount?" "Sorry but we can't do that."

Compare the price of TurboTax with other tax packages is another example of how Intuit rips us off. And Quickbooks users.... you have my sympathy.

OK, that's my Intuit rant for today.

OK, that's my Intuit rant for today.

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Completely agree chscag, and for Canadians it was even worse with their lack of proper support for most of their software, if and when it worked, and their solution — just quit updating it or even making it available and just drop it for Mac users!!





- Patrick
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I don't blame Apple one bit for the quick book problem. Intuit are a bunch of pirates! I am sure Sierra might have run better if I let it do it's thing for a couple hours but the whole quickbooks thing was a red flag. Can't justify wasting another $200. I bought quickbooks 6 months ago. Ridiculous! I also wanted to check out how the apple watch works with the login--Took too long. Typing the password at login is much faster. I Wiped my hard drive and ended up restoring back to El Cap--and for some reason El Cap is absolutely zooming now. It's never been this fast. Thanks Again for all your help!

I also wanted to check out how the apple watch works with the login--Took too long.

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Strange, my  watch unlocks the MBP in seconds. Yes, I probably could type the password faster, but it's not just speed, it's convenience. I can walk up to my desk, tap the spacebar and by the time I'm sitting in the chair the MBP is up and ready for me.

A reinstall is always going to be lightning fast because all the caches are now empty.

I think you didn't give Sierra long enough to settle in. It has to index the drive(s) for Spotlight to work, which can take a long time and will cause some minor stuttering early on. But that's why there are horseraces! Enjoy El Cap for as long as you can.

pm-r said:

Hmmm…odd. Maybe we run different apps or do much different things but I don't think I ever come close to using all of the 20GB RAM on my 2011 27" iMac. At least according to Activity Monitor memory use.


- Patrick

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the i Macs i own only take 4GB, 6 with OWC expensive for 6GB RAM. There the difference is quite noticeable.

dtravis7 said:

the i Macs i own only take 4GB, 6 with OWC expensive for 6GB RAM. There the difference is quite noticeable.

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I can't imaging trying to run a recent compatible OS X with only 4GB memory for more than a few minutes.

At least you can get a replacement 4GB chip for well under $100.00 as they are close to $150.00 for us in Canada. Bit I'd still seriously consider it if I had to use a 2008 iMac. Our (now my wife's) 2007 24" iMac runs with 6GB and does quite well and also has a WD Black replacement HDD.




- Patrick
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I favour the idea of upgrading to Sierra, in my experience it is a faster better macOS than El Capitan but do check that your existing applications can be updated to Sierra compatible versions. This should not be an issue for most reputable applications but be prepared to perform those updates. In some cases you may require your registration details/keys, and passwords. My Microsoft Office suite opened like a new installation after upgrade to Sierra, requiring my CD Key to re activate, others just needed my password and user name.
As with all big changes we advise a full backup prior to upgrading. You might like to consider cloning your Macintosh HD using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper prior to the upgrade just in case the installation goes sideways.
Both of the above offer fully functional trial versions so that you could always restore or downgrade to El Capitan should you decide to.

My Microsoft Office suite opened like a new installation after upgrade to Sierra, requiring my CD Key to re activate, others just needed my password and user name.

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That's unusual. I have updated OS X numerous times since installing Office 2011 and was never once asked for the product key serial number or to re-activate it. The only time the activation wizard should pop up is a change of hardware. Are you sure you didn't upgrade the hardware at the same time?

pm-r said:

I can't imaging trying to run a recent compatible OS X with only 4GB memory for more than a few minutes.

At least you can get a replacement 4GB chip for well under $100.00 as they are close to $150.00 for us in Canada. Bit I'd still seriously consider it if I had to use a 2008 iMac. Our (now my wife's) 2007 24" iMac runs with 6GB and does quite well and also has a WD Black replacement HDD.




- Patrick
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If you check my Sig here I have other Macs. the older ones are just for internet surfing in the front room of the house I live in with other people. It's more than fast enough with El Cap.

I own a BTO 2010 iMac with Quad I7 with 8 threads, 32 GB Ram. WD black and 9GB total H D D with 3 externals. It runs Sierra like a watch and I also own an MBP with 16GB ram and i5. That also runs sierra fast.

I have other Macs. the older ones are just for internet surfing

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That should work.

I own a BTO 2010 iMac with Quad I7 with 8 threads, 32 GB Ram.

That is of course I imagine MUCH nicer to use.

WD black and 9GB total H D D with 3 externals

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But I think you might mean 9TB, or something larger than 9GB!!





- Patrick
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