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iMac very slow after boot up

KyleKlink

KyleKlink

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 22, 2009
127
0
Santa Maria, Ca
I noticed my iMac (Late 2009 C2D) was running a bit sluggish over the last month so I asked my Mac enthusiast buddy what I could do to help improve performance. He suggested that I use OnyX to do some system cleaning and repair permissions. I did the repair permissions (only two errors found) then headed to the cleanup section of the app. By default the program selects the following cache to clean:

- Boot
- International Prefs
- Quicktime Components
- Audio Components
- Other Components

After running this process I rebooted the iMac and now things are even worse. After OS X boots I can hear the hard drive working hard for about 12-15 minutes straight. During this period of time opening any application, expanding stacks in my dock, or even browsing the Web is painfully slow and gives me a beach ball with every click of the mouse.

Im only using 63.97 GB of my Mac OS partition (547.61 GB total size). Also, I have no applications set to launch at boot.

Any ideas what the hard drive might be doing for 15 minutes at every boot? This is a really annoying issue and I'd like to get it resolved.

Thanks in advance.
 
That's quite odd.. You might have cleared some essential files for some Applications you use.. Is there any way you can use OnyX to completely undo what you've done and see if that makes any difference?
 
TheBritishBloke said:
That's quite odd.. You might have cleared some essential files for some Applications you use.. Is there any way you can use OnyX to completely undo what you've done and see if that makes any difference?
Click to expand...

It doesn't appear that there is a way to reverse what has been done. What strikes me as odd is that the hard drive will spend the 12-15 minutes cranking away even if I do nothing once the computer boots. I've let it sit after booting and the hard drive is still crunching away. From the list of cache items I cleared I don't really see anything that would cause the computer to have to read/write or do whatever it's doing for 15 minutes just to load OS X.
 
Did you change any boot items when you used OnyX? Mac OS X Could be trying to use some items from the disabled boot items.

If all else fails, reinstall OS X WITHOUT formatting, this should fix any corrupted/missing files, and could cure the lag. Might take a couple of hours to install though.
 
TheBritishBloke said:
Did you change any boot items when you used OnyX? Mac OS X Could be trying to use some items from the disabled boot items.

If all else fails, reinstall OS X WITHOUT formatting, this should fix any corrupted/missing files, and could cure the lag. Might take a couple of hours to install though.
Click to expand...

I was going to do a time machine backup and then reinstall.
 
KyleKlink said:
I'll give it the old college try in a couple hours and see what happens. Thanks for the assistance.
Click to expand...

No problem. Make sure to update us if you have any other issues after doing this.

Just as a disclaimer:

I cannot nor can Mac Forums be held responsible for any loss of data or damage to your unit by following the advice provided.

Always have to say that when I recommend this ^^
 
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