Slowed to a crawl

[poppi]

My iMac has ground to a virtual halt. Overnight it has gone from normal speed to very slow. I have tried permissions repair and disk repair with no success.

First clue – on startup I get the following message:

“Your Mac OSX startup disk has no more space available for application memory. To avoid problems with your computer quit any applications you are not using. Closing windows and removing files from your startup disk will also help.”

For info my startup disk is the hard drive and it has 184 GB used of 250 GB total. I tried to find out the big users (Get Info) but they all say “Calculating size” with no results.

Another clue – I frequently get an unresponsive scripts warning, typically when moving around in Firefox.

Also, when I get frustrated waiting for something to open I leave the room and return later to find the Mac frozen on a photo from my screen saver group. The only way to get pot of that is to manually shut down and restart,.

I am at OS 10.6.8

Any suggestions will be very much appreciated. The machine is virtually unusable.

Many thanks

Poppi

 

[pigoo3]

If your hard drive is not full (as it would seem from the info [provided). Download, install, and run the free maintenance app called Onyx (for 10.6.8)…and see if it helps.

It's also possible from what is described…that the hard drive in this computer is failing.

Try Onyx first…and see if it helps.

- Nick

 

[poppi]

If your hard drive is not full (as it would seem from the info [provided). Download, install, and run the free maintenance app called Onyx (for 10.6.8)…and see if it helps.

It's also possible from what is described…that the hard drive in this computer is failing.

Try Onyx first…and see if it helps.

Thanks for thew suggestion Nick. Tried ONYX and first it checked S.M.A.R.T. then went into verifying startup volume (Hard Drive) but never seemed to finish the latter. After that the Mac was still VERY slow. Checking the hard drive I saw 198 GB used (before ONYX) then 172 (after ONYX) but on restart I got the same alert message and found 236 GB used. No way I can be adding and deleting that many GB to the hard drive. Do you think it is toast? I am long beyond the warranty. Is there any hope in taking it to the Apple store for diagnosis?


Thank you

poppi

 

[Slydude]

Nick's better at this than I am but I'm leaning in the direction of a hard drive that is stating to give up. Onyx should have been able to complete checking the drive. The fact that it couldn't coupled with the fact that the used space numbers are all over the place without an apparent reason suggests that the drive may be having problems. Do you have current backups?

 

[lclev]

I agree with Slydude and Nick. Sounds like hard drive failure. The memory issue could be because the hard drive swap file is having trouble functioning because the it is dying. You do not indicate what year your iMac is or if this is the original hard drive but I suspicion it is dying.

Lisa

 

[pigoo3]

Is there any hope in taking it to the Apple store for diagnosis?

Agree with Slydude and Lisa…if the problem was a software issue…Onyx should have been able to clear it up. If it's not a software issue…then it's a hardware issue. Hard drives are relatively inexpensive…and very it's possible that you may be able to replace the hard drive yourself (procedures on ifixit.com). Many of the symptoms you mention do sound like a dying hard drive. And if so…it could completely die at any point (hopefully you have all the important stuff backup up already).

- Nick

p.s. FYI…depending on how old this computer is…Apple may or may not look at it ("vintage model"). And if Apple was willing to look at it…they may tell you the same thing we are saying…bad hard drive.

 

[poppi]

Nick's better at this than I am but I'm leaning in the direction of a hard drive that is stating to give up. Onyx should have been able to complete checking the drive. The fact that it couldn't coupled with the fact that the used space numbers are all over the place without an apparent reason suggests that the drive may be having problems. Do you have current backups?

Thanks Slydude. I have 2 external hard drives, one for iPhoto and iMovie files and one for Time machine so, yes I think I am backed up. I also have monthly backups to CD for my important files.

In searching Apple trouble shooting one of the "fixes" suggested reinstalling the OS (10.6). Any chance this would help?

Thank you

poppi

 

[poppi]

Agree with Slydude and Lisa…if the problem was a software issue…Onyx should have been able to clear it up. If it's not a software issue…then it's a hardware issue. Hard drives are relatively inexpensive…and very it's possible that you may be able to replace the hard drive yourself (procedures on ifixit.com). Many of the symptoms you mention do sound like a dying hard drive. And if so…it could completely die at any point (hopefully you have all the important stuff backup up already).

- Nick

That sounds like a possibility. Where can one buy a hard drive?

poppi

 

[pigoo3]

That sounds like a possibility. Where can one buy a hard drive?

poppi

Just about anywhere that sells electronic items (brick & mortar and online stores).

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

In searching Apple trouble shooting one of the "fixes" suggested reinstalling the OS (10.6). Any chance this would help?

If it were me…this is one thing I would do before declaring this HD a "goner". Need to get your 10.6 install disk…boot from the disk, reformat the HD…then a fresh install of 10.6.

Back all your stuff up first (just in case of an issue)…ESPECIALLY since this HD seems to have issues.

- Nick