Replacing my late 2013 iMac for a brand spanking new one...

I'd get the 2TB SSD drive, but seriously, get rid of Avast...

Uninstall Avast per their directions then run etrecheck again to see what chaff it left.

On AVG & Avast…

https://x704.net/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8803&p=115715&hilit=avg#p115715

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251454104?answerId=252862395022#252862395022

SteeevoA wrote:

Will I be able to migrate from my iMac running High Sierra to a new one running Catalina?

Yes. See: How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

A bit severe don't you think, why don't you offload all the files/ data that you do not need on a daily basis

to an external hard drive. Then you can delete those items from your iMac, if you run your mac too low on

storage it will just lock up and become unusable. Once you have done that then you can upgrade to Catalina.

Saves you a couple of grand.

@BDAqua, I need some help on implementing your recommendation. I also have a late 2013 and currently running Mojave (this machine has never been "right" (when I first purchased it, the physical disk was somehow unmounted I was told this was nothing I could not have done, but it happened and don't know how). I took the iMac back to the authorized seller and their tech department "fixed" the issue, so I was told. I run Microsoft subscription based 365 on this machine, am woefully low on room, have two large externals, use three clouds, and am having issues with beachballing, freezing, eliminated kernel panics a while ago, and have intermittent reports from EtreCheck showing it appears my hard drive is failing (recently the results have been consistently showing a failing drive) as of late when I move items off to an external I have been getting the same drive failing message, but now "magically am getting a good report". I am considering replacing the current Mac (this is as you pointed out expensive and I prefer not to expend thousands of dollars if I don't need to). Ideally I would prefer to move from an HDD to SSD (very expensive and looking at a spend of $5k). How easy is it for me to add an external SSD to my existing machine and can move some of my larger applications to the SSD without impacting speed and accessibility? Outlook is a major culprit for space (same with other Microsoft Applications), and I have no desire to use OutlookLive or other web based apps and prefer to keep them locally. Am I looking at a plug and play install here like an external and just reassigning my start up disk to the SSD? Will this just remove all OSX files to the SSD and free up space from the HHD? Sorry for the long post, I would like to get this done as quickly and effectively/efficiently as possible and upgrade to Catalina since we are already seeing the Beta version for the next OSX. I know this machine is upgradable to Catalina but is not able to take advantage of all new features offered in Catalina, but I would expect support for Mojave to cease since the newest OSX is already available for BETA without a developer license. Any information you can provide would be great. I still have a lot to learn but welcome support and expertise from my fellow community members. Thanks in advance and apologies for the long post.

@BDAqua, sorry for the re-post was unable to edit the above - I need some help on implementing your recommendation. I also have a late 2013 27" iMac 3.4 GHz intel Core I5 16GB RAM 1600 MHz DDR3 (4x4) upgraded from the 2x4 it came with and looking to upgrade again to max RAM for this machine (and currently running Mojave 10.14.6 upgraded from (this machine has never been "right" (when I first purchased it, the physical disk was somehow unmounted I was told this was nothing I could not have done, but it happened and don't know how). I took the iMac back to the authorized seller and their tech department "fixed" the issue, so I was told. I run Microsoft subscription based 365 on this machine, am woefully low on room, have two large externals, use three clouds, and am having issues with beachballing, freezing, eliminated kernel panics a while ago, and have intermittent reports from EtreCheck showing it appears my hard drive is failing (recently the results have been consistently showing a failing drive) as of late when I move items off to an external I have been getting the same drive failing message, but now "magically am getting a good report". I am considering replacing the current Mac (this is as you pointed out expensive and I prefer not to expend thousands of dollars if I don't need to). Ideally I would prefer to move from an HDD to SSD (very expensive and looking at a spend of $5k). How easy is it for me to add an external SSD to my existing machine and can move some of my larger applications to the SSD without impacting speed and accessibility? Outlook is a major culprit for space (same with other Microsoft Applications), and I have no desire to use OutlookLive or other web based apps and prefer to keep them locally. Am I looking at a plug and play install here like an external and just reassigning my start up disk to the SSD? Will this just remove all OSX files to the SSD and free up space from the HHD? Sorry for the long post, I would like to get this done as quickly and effectively/efficiently as possible and upgrade to Catalina since we are already seeing the Beta version for the next OSX. I know this machine is upgradable to Catalina but is not able to take advantage of all new features offered in Catalina, but I would expect support for Mojave to cease since the newest OSX is already available for BETA without a developer license. Any information you can provide would be great. I still have a lot to learn but welcome support and expertise from my fellow community members. Thanks in advance and apologies for the long post.

Am I looking at a plug and play install here like an external and just reassigning my start up disk to the SSD?

Yes, but I wouldn't be in a hurry to go to Catalina. How much Space are you using on the Internal drive & what size is it?

Get one of these USB3 drives, use CCC to clone your internal over to the external, set the external as your startup drive...

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/external-drives/OWC-Envoy-Pro

Or Thunderbolt Dock & SSD(s)...

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2U3DKR2OB/

Carbon Copy Cloner...

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

64 GB of RAM Max...

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/1866D3R9M64/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=googlebase&gclsrc=ds

We need to know the size drive you have now & how much is used.

The TB2 Dock above will be twice as fast as the USB3 Drive above

"We need to know the size drive you have now & how much is used."

Note: Today and nothing has changed (no new software, downloads, added, created, or new files) System is beachballing like crazy, extremely slow and I am guessing if I run EtreCheck, I will get a "failing drive" result.

EtreCheck Text from Report July 3 for Drives

Drives:

    disk0 - APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 7200 RPM)

    Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

        disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

        disk0s2 [APFS Container] 1000.00 GB

            disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 1000.00 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)

                disk1s1 - Primary(APFS) (Shared - 891.30 GB used)

                disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)

                disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)

                disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 8.59 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

    disk1s1 - Primary

        1000.00 GB (Shared - 891.30 GB used, 106.31 GB available, 99.35 GB free)

        APFS

        Mount point: /

    disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM]

        1000.00 GB (Shared - 8.59 GB used, 99.35 GB free)

        APFS

        Mount point: /private/var/vm

Thanks, for the support

@BDAqua - Additional information re: Drives - as suspected above - ran EtreCheck today and I received the "hard drive appears to be failing result". Below is the information about my drives as of today, so there is a variance of 2.29 available GB and free. This could be email, this could be related to Avast being reinstalled the other day, but I checked my system after re-install and it was fine. I just realized I did enable load the VPN from the package and this could account for the variance, but completely uninstalled their PW program since I don't have any use for it (all installer packages were also trashed and emptied). I have performed first aid on my drives and every time it comes up fine. I think this is a space issue rather than a failure of my drive. Even this variance of 2.29 GB affected performance. Unfortunately, I got nailed with a huge bill from Avast in October, well above and beyond the price I expected to pay and did not realize how much they charged me until after I noticed there was a software conflict with the version I was running, and they refused to reimburse me 2 weeks outside their parameters even though they renewed my license several weeks ahead of time. It is a losing battle with them, as most ppl already know, but I digress. I realize Apple has security built in but it does not cover email for Outlook (malware attachments), malware infected site alerts, etc. (if I am wrong please educate me here. - no sarcasm intended at all).

Drives:

    disk0 - APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 1.00 TB (Mechanical - 7200 RPM)

    Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

        disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

        disk0s2 [APFS Container] 1000.00 GB

            disk1 [APFS Virtual drive] 1000.00 GB (Shared by 4 volumes)

                disk1s1 -Primary (APFS) (Shared - 891.81 GB used)

                disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] (Shared)

                disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] (Shared)

                disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] (Shared - 8.59 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

    disk1s1 -Primary

        1000.00 GB (Shared - 891.81 GB used, 104.02 GB available, 96.96 GB free)

        APFS

        Mount point: /

    disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM]

        1000.00 GB (Shared - 8.59 GB used, 96.96 GB free)

        APFS

        Mount point: /private/var/vm

Thanks for the information. They seemed pretty slimy to begin with, advertising one rate and charging another, so it is no surprise they would be making money in other nefarious ways. Since I reinstalled it, I am seeing some similar issues I had in the past, reboot without reason, even slower than before etc. I ended up with a clean report from EtreCheck after a reboot, but this software (Avast) is going now.

@ BDAqua

Yes, I have files left behind, and not sure if I should use AppCleaner to remove them or what to do about getting rid of this garbage from my machine. It is so irritating to have any traces of Avast anything left behind. Any recommendations?

Container:Avast.appShow in FinderExtension:

Label:

Version:

Developer:

Status:AvastFileShield.kext

com.avast.FileShield

4.0.0 - SDK 10.12

AVAST Software a.s.

Not loadedExtension:

Label:

Version:

Developer:

Status:AvastPacketForwarder.kext

com.avast.PacketForwarder

2.1 - SDK 10.12

AVAST Software a.s.

Not loaded

Launch Agent

File name:com.avast.hub.plistLabel:com.avast.hubStatus:Not loadedDeveloper:AVAST Software a.s.Install Date:2020-07-11 07:57:25

Launch Daemons

File name:com.avast.hub.schedule.plistLabel:com.avast.hub.scheduleStatus:Not loadedDeveloper:?Install Date:2020-07-11 07:57:26Show in FinderShow executableLookupFile name:com.avast.hub.xpc.plistLabel:com.avast.hub.xpcStatus:Not loadedDeveloper:AVAST Software a.s.Install Date:2020-07-11 07:57:26

Avast Passwords Safari Extension

Avast is nasty, not sure about AppCleaner, if in doubt use this to locate the Avast files, trash them & restart...

Find Any File...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.

I'd put the money into an external SSD & boot from that.

OK, good... & I bet their uninstaller leaves some files on your computer.