Failing hard drive: EtreCheck report for iMac (late 2014)

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Failing hard drive: EtreCheck report for iMac (late 2014)

I recently noticed a drastic slowdown in performance with my iMac (late 2014, 27" 5K). Even though it's 5+ years old, I've never noticed any performance issues until now. The recent issues are simply unbearable, like taking minutes to open any program (even Safari). The only recent software installations I did were an update to several Microsoft Office programs, but I suspect the slowdown is a coincidence not related to those updates. I discovered EtreCheck and ran it twice to see what the issue might be. Both times I got the same result: failing hard drive. I have a 3TB fusions drive and assuming I do have a failing hard drive, I can't find anything in the report to suggest if it's the 128 GB SSD or the 3TB drive that is failing. My understanding is that I may be able to replace the failing drive myself and so I'm here to ask for your help to understand the EtreCheck results. I can't see anywhere it actually states test results such as read/write speed. Thank you in advance and here is the entire EtreCheck report:

EtreCheck report

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 23, 2020 6:00 AM

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Answer 1

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rkaufmann87

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144,108 points

Jan 23, 2020 7:50 AM in response to geoffrie

I don't for sure know it's the spinning drive however the odds are highly in favor of that being the offending part. The SSD has no moving parts compared to the HD and all spinning platters have bad sectors, and moving parts. With HD's it's just a matter of when they fail not if. Some can last 10 years or more, some a month or two.

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Answer 2

rkaufmann87

Level 10

144,108 points

Jan 23, 2020 6:10 AM in response to geoffrie

It's the spinning HD, get it replaced with another SSD and run unfused and also faster than a Fusion drive. Contact a local independent Apple Authorized Service Provider and ask for a quote. I'd also recommend using an Macsales.com SSD internally.

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Answer 3

geoffrie Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 23, 2020 6:16 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the quick response! Just out of curiosity, how do you know it's the spinning drive?

I don't use this computer all that much so would like to minimize costs while also getting back the storage space I currently have on the 3TB drive. I don't necessarily need another 3TB drive, but I do have more than 1TB currently saved on my spinning drive so would prefer a 2TB. My understanding is that it would be prohibitively expensive to buy an SSD that large. I haven't researched it at all yet, but assume I can't just buy any old spinning drive but that it is likely a smaller format or special size to fit inside the iMac case. Any insight you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

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Answer 4

geoffrie Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 23, 2020 6:23 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Just wanted to follow up to say that I checked macsales.com and was shocked that a 2TB SSD is only $469! I'll have to look into this option a bit more.

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Failing hard drive: EtreCheck report for iMac (late 2014)

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