Mac problem

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Yv

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Morning all

I have a feeling I know the answer to this, but just wanted to check here in case anyone has any clever ideas that will save me several hours.

Yesterday my mid-2011 iMac, running mavericks, suddenly slowed to an absolute crawl. No apparent reason for this, I had several programs open, usual sort of stuff, LR, PSCS, Firefox [with just this forum open in it], MacMail and Tweetdeck. So, after some time wasting pain of closing stuff down, lots and lots of spinning beachball, I managed to shut it down and reboot. Still the same. Checked activity monitor, which took forever to open, but nothing showing there as tying up loads of resourses. Checked disc utility, all seemed well there.

So, rebooted again but this time with only my TM disc plugged in, no other external HD's and holding Cmd-R to get to the separate disc utility. Ran a verify disc and it said the OS disc needed backing up and formating/new installation. Tried repair disc, but it said it couldn't be repaired.

So, I opted to restore from TM and gnashing my teeth over the time wasted because I have a lot of work on, settled back to wait. Eventually it all sorted itself out and the machine is now back up and running and much quicker than its been for weeks. Disc utility from the backup system reports that the disc is fine.

However, here is my problem, the inbuilt back up is the only way I can access Disc Utility, in fact, the only item from the Utilities folder that works is the Activity monitor, nothing else. No Console, no nothing. I did try entering TM and over writing that folder, but of course it won't let me because it OSX uses it.

So, I have a horrible feeling that the only way I can sort this is by doing a completely clean install and of course all the associated reinstallation of software [finding all those sodding licence keys again, etc] I am probably going to do this anyway, but would prefer to wait until I have got rid of a load of work. So, in the meantime, anyone got any bright ideas that might sort it out? Obviously after this problem I would like to be able to quickly check the discs regularly in case of any impending problems, without having to constantly reboot to do so?
 
I'll be interested to hear what is said here too. My old Macbook *felt* like it was getting slower and slower, and upgrading to Mavericks on a brand new SSD made it slower still. In the end I did what you are dreading, and did a clean install of everything. It did not help*.

2011 you say? 3 year replacement cycle I hear Apple say? :p

Just like some will tell you - OSX doesn't need reinstallation. ;)

Hope you can find a useful fix, other than replacement.
 
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Well its a 2011 model, but was actually purchased new in 2012, just before the new model came out, so only 2 years old ;) It is now running quicker than it was, which I should add wasn't slow, but is now back to being uber quick.

My 2011 MBP, actually purchased in 2011 and just out of Apple care also runs much more slowly these days, so will possibly do a clean install on that too soon, will let you know how that gets on. ;)
 
Hi Yv
have you got apple time machine backup on another drive for your mac?
I think it does it automatically onto an external drive
I think that makes a copy of what's on your hard drive and you should be able to wipe and reload everything back onto the hard drive
I'm not an expert on computers though so may be wrong about how it works
Edit just reread your post you have already tried the time machine thing

when I bought my macbook pro the apple guy told me that apple computers dont slow down over time like windows machines because they don't use a registry whatever that means but it sounds like it was just sales talk
 
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LOl, Thanks Pete but yes, Time Machine was used to restore the whole thing, then attempted for the Utilities but you can't use it, from inside the OS anyway, to restore OS folders. In fairness, I have had many many windoze laptops, none have actually made it to 3 years, and all have slowed considerably more than any mac I have had, despite me being very good at keeping them generally 'clean and tidy'. Slowness is a relative thing, even my MBP is still quite quick, but it does struggle a bit with stuff like LR4.2, but given it only just meets the min spec for it, its hardly surprising and I rarely use it for editing anyway. ;)
 
Yes I probably shouldn't post on here when I'm on nights the brain isn't working properly!
Its a shame that the time machine thing doesn't work properly and you have to reload everything anyway

my windows pc is at a similar stage its running slower but I can't face reloading everything !
 
In many ways that's why I have still kept my desktop, its a big old thing and some of its spec are down on say my laptop, but it run better when I am doing photo work.
:)
 
@Yv - it sound to me like you are now having a permissions problem, if the tools are there but you aren't able to start them it is generally a permissions thing...

I'd still be concerned about the first problem. If disk utility gave that advice I'd be concerned about using that disk all together, and would want to know the reason why. Did you format it, or restore the backup over the existing stuff?

I'm assuming your recovery partition is on the same disk, I'd try and boot of a completely different disk and review that disk in your HDD fully before using it for anything useful. Perhaps run tech tool on it as a diagnostic tool to see what is really going on.
 
Morning JP, and yes, permissions were the first thing I checked/repaired, from the separate recovery partition on the drive and again from within the OS but to no avail. Now I have finished editing the wedding I was in the middle of [all photos and LR catalogues are stored on ext HD's btw], I can get this weekend out of the way [more weddings to shoot] and dig out the install disc and run similar from that and make sure the disc really is ok. All indications are that so far it is, I have booted in recovery mode daily to make sure. Just for info, it does warn you several times that when doing a TimeMachine recovery that all your HD information is deleted and then written back into place using the back up, though I guess its a surface format and it did take several hours to complete. Any suggestions on diagnostics tools for Macs that can do a further check?

Still looking like a full format and fresh install is the only proper way to deal with it assuming the disc is genuinely fine and something in the OS just got itself knotted up, just a bloody nuisance really. *sigh*
 
Tech tool Pro is good for further diagnostics, it should be available from your apple care account. And disc warrior is another that I use.

I've had similar symptoms once before in all my years, and a super block got corrupted. Right nuisance this is.
 
Have you tried Onyx? It'll clean a lot of things up for you and hopefully improve performance. Give it a try before a reformat.

I have a Mid-2011 iMac, and mine did slow down and had a few issues a couple months ago. It wasn't horrifically slow though, did a fresh install which was probably overdue anyway and it's been fine since.
 
This sounds very much to me like a failing disk.

Is the 2011 iMac subject to the hard disk recall they did a while back?
 
dejongj said:
Tech tool Pro is good for further diagnostics, it should be available from your apple care account. And disc warrior is another that I use.

I've had similar symptoms once before in all my years, and a super block got corrupted. Right nuisance this is.
Click to expand...

Thanks JP and apologies for delay in replying, its been more of a manic week than I expected. I will have a look at those tools, they sound useful.

Crusader said:
Have you tried Onyx? It'll clean a lot of things up for you and hopefully improve performance. Give it a try before a reformat.

I have a Mid-2011 iMac, and mine did slow down and had a few issues a couple months ago. It wasn't horrifically slow though, did a fresh install which was probably overdue anyway and it's been fine since.
Click to expand...

I think I ran Onyx on my old machine... must check.

pwhysall said:
This sounds very much to me like a failing disk.

Is the 2011 iMac subject to the hard disk recall they did a while back?
Click to expand...

It is but not the drive in this machine, I checked anyway plus it went in to have a new screen a few months back and they checked then too.
 
Get one of those SMART monitor thingies and see what it's got to say about your disk.

Modern disks are quite good at deciding they're going to fail well before they actually do.

TBH if I were in your position I'd be planning for a new disk, rather than for a re-format; if there was a software problem causing a slowdown of the type you described, I think you'd see it all the time and it wouldn't just go away by itself (except if you've got some bizarre networking problems; I once had a situation where my Mac turned to dung because it couldn't do such-and-such a DNS lookup, but again, when that broke it stayed broke until it was fixed).

The path of least resistance may well be to make sure you've got a super-solid Time Machine backup and bootable media for your iMac, and replace the disk.

If you're comfortable with the command-line and fsck, you could try booting into single-user mode and checking the disk that way. If that sentence didn't make any sense, you're best off avoiding such things :) Even if this works, it is probably just delaying the inevitable, though.

(Checking permissions rarely fixes anything serious.)
 
The Mac's inbuilt SMART is saying its fine and it has indeed been operating perfectly and quick since restoration apart from this issue with not having access to the utilities. Time machine back up is solid, which is at least something. I too am not convinced its software though, I actually have very little running on the machines internal HD, just OS plus editing programs [Lr & PS] and a couple of bits, all of which are working as they always have.

Command line... 10 years ago I was perfectly cmfortable with it... on Windows machines, it was my job/training, but now.... :lol: if someone tells the syntax to run checks, happy to do them, but no idea where to start myself these days.
 
Yv said:
Command line... 10 years ago I was perfectly cmfortable with it... on Windows machines, it was my job/training, but now.... :LOL: if someone tells the syntax to run checks, happy to do them, but no idea where to start myself these days.
Click to expand...

Nah, you don't want to be doing that with a cheat sheet - given the potential for rendering your system completely kablooie, you want to be doing that with a clear understanding of what you're up to.
 
Sorry Yv if I missed it in all this, but have you got an installation disc? If so you could boot from that and access disk utility from there.
 
That's deffo the safest way of checking the disk without the OS running (which is what you need if it wants to fix things - I wish Apple would let OS X run a user-scheduled disk check/fix at start up, like how Windows does it when you do CHKDSK /F on your system disk).
 
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Yep, have done that too, as well as from the recovery partition, again, all showing the disk as good.

I just had to pop out for 20 mins, and whilst driving, something occured to me - current TM backups will have the faulty Utilities folder yes, and I can't restore the original folder from an older TM back up because it says its a OS folder and won't let me.

So, I am guessing it would do the same if I tried individually restoring folders such as Users, Applications or Libraries too? Ergo, if I do clean install, does that pretty much make the TM backup useless by way of already installed software? I will have to do the whole lot from scratch and just use Docs/Pictures, etc, backups, not anything that is related to OS and program installations?
 
You could try reinstalling just OSX, not a complete clean reinstall. Do this from the recovery partition and the OS will download and install the latest version, Takes a time but easier than a clean install. The OS will install but leave your data intact ( well it did on mine. (do a TM backup just in case ;))
 
Phew ok, spent the last hour finding all the install files and licence keys for the software, including various PS plugins and stuff. Back up all the various files and docs too, although I can get those from TM but done/doing it to an ext HD too for double security. Emails exported to back up, though they are iMap so should be safe on the server anyway, but again, better safe than sorry. Database for CMS done, list of downloaded apps that dont need licence keys... 3 in total, firefox, filezilla and sophos [told you there wasn't really much on here] I dont run itunes so thats one headache I don't have. Just waiting for the docs/pics to finish copying over to the ext HD then I'm done I think. Off out in a bit, got a pre-wedding shoot tonight, so tomorrow morning, will get the fresh install sorted and then run all the disk checks and make sure everything still shows as fine before getting the software back on.

John, yeah, I think I have done that on a laptop with same results, but to be honest, this time, I would rather start fro scratch so I can check everything as I go just in case.
 
Update:

I have formatted the drive, done a clean Mavericks install, ran various check tools, and still the reports are that the disc is perfectly good. reinstalled software and everything running beautifully and smoothly and no problems with utilities. So, touch wood all is ok but will of course continue to monitor it for any signs of issues. I do wonder if the TM backup I used was corrupt for some reason? I have run disk checks on all the external drives including the TM one and they seem to be ok too, but I guess it's not beyond the realms of possibility that I chose the wrong backup to use. :thinking:
 
Don't forget Mavericks allows you to use multiple drives for backups, so you can do a Father-Son option. Just tell TM that you are doing this. Helps with off site storage etc, but also gives you redundancy in case you have a corrupt TM back up
 
Glad you got sorted.

Being an old computer fart, I'm always a bit disappointed if I have to take the nuke & pave route; I'm much happier finding the specific problem and fixing it (and "fixing it" can include a reinstall).

But sorting out a grumbly OS installation can take a long, long time and it's far from the most rewarding way to spend your evenings.
 
Check all the vents are clean too. I usually have mistat running so if it goes wobbly I can check for memory hogs, cpu hogs and over heating quite easily. They also do a menu bar version that just sits top right so you can see things at a glance.
 
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