Slow boot - Slow hard drive on iMac

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Slow boot - Slow hard drive on iMac

iMac is playing up. I noticed when playing videos it would stop and start, beachballing when opening files especially large ones like videos and taking a while to open.

Few days ago I reset the PRAM, NVRAM for a previous issue I was having with the keyboard - which did not fix it. I also updated to macOS 12.2. I cleared the storage so there’s 200GB left (out of 3TB).

I also did an etre check previously and there were no major issues except the the SSD was slow.

Now with this new issue, I restarted but it takes over an hour and it still hasn’t booted up. I managed to capture this as it was booting:

I have a feeling the Fusion Drive has failed or is failing.

iMac 27″ 5K, 12.2

Posted on Jan 30, 2022 4:13 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

PRP_53

Level 10

91,807 points

Feb 1, 2022 1:46 AM in response to erahi

Q - disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0128L 121.33 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Q - diskOs2 [APFS Fusion Drive] 121.02 GB

disk1 - APPLE HDD ST3000DM001 3.00 TB (Mechanical - 7200 RPM)

Fusion drives may have been good in its day. They performed well in the past. Good good for Storage but with each newer version of macOS the performance hit for anything Mechanical even the 7200 RPM drive becomes very noticeable.

One maybe able to prolong the usage of this machine by purchasing a very good enclosure for a very good SSD drive and install Monterey directly to that drive. Use the External Drive as the Startup drive and the performance difference would be immediately noticed. Then one could use the Internal Drive for Storage purposes.

Seems portions of the Etrecheck report are cut off at the end of the report. IMHO

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Answer 2

lllaass

Level 10

210,459 points

Feb 1, 2022 1:20 AM in response to erahi

You sure do not have any apps installed.

The write speed is slow

Write speed: 433 MB/s

Read speed: 2656 MB/s

That is comparable to a plain HDD not the Fusion drive you have.

If you disconnect all the external drives is boot up speed OK?

What I would do would be to make sure you have a good backup and then bood to recovery and split the Fusion drive and then recreate it using

How to fix a split Fusion Drive - Apple Support

Then reinstall macOS from Recovery and then restore your data.

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

210,459 points

Jan 31, 2022 12:59 AM in response to erahi

It could be your disk is failing which then results in little things ot workig like keyboard keys in addition to slow startup. Also GPU failing also may be a problem.

I would rerun EtreCheck and post the results here

Make sure you check Enable full disk access .

After running the app use the app's feature to paste to clipboard. Then paste it in the text box for a reply in this forum click on the addition text icon. This is because the normal reply text box limits how much you can type.

o personal identifiable information is contained if the app output. The app was written for a person who is contributor to these Apple Support Communities

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Answer 4

erahi Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 30, 2022 6:28 PM in response to etresoft

Ok, so not a hard drive failure? Sometimes it does boot, however there’s lots of beach-balling.

Few days ago I was having issues with the keyboard where the right shift button, brightness up and down buttons and Mission Control button are not working, but the volume up and down are. I dont know if that issue is related.

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 9

51,038 points

Feb 1, 2022 4:25 AM in response to erahi

erahi wrote:

Ok, so not a hard drive failure? Sometimes it does boot, however there’s lots of beach-balling.

The hard drive’s performance is fine. This looks like some other kind of logic board failure. Either way, this is not something you can fix. You will need to take the computer to an Apple Store or Authorized Apple Support provider for diagnostics and repair.

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Answer 6

erahi Author

Level 1

25 points

Feb 19, 2022 11:33 PM in response to PRP_53

Thank you - this has worked out for me. I purchased a 4TB external drive, installed macOS Monterey and restored my Time Machine backup via Recovery Mode on to the drive. Now I am using this to startup and primary volume for all my files and apps etc.

Everything is working fast and running perfectly - no slowness at all like with before. In fact previously it got a point where my iMac wasn't booting up and the progress bar was stuck at around 50% after few hours. No it boots up fine.

Thankfully it worked out and I didn't have to buy a new machine.

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