Mac Pro Running slow

[bartsphoto]

Hey There I have a 2008 Mac Pro with 10GB Ram processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon and its been running super slow lately with I use PhotoShop CS5 the ram drops to 1GB will it be better to do a clean restore when Lion will come out? and if Yes how can I back up some of my applications and I use Iweb to run my website how can I back all of that up after a clean restore?
Also after I put snow leopard my Mac Pro will not go to sleep mode on its own I went to the apple store and they had no idea why this happens or if they could fix it.
thanx

 

[sunnyj]

have you repaired disk permissions with disk utility? perhaps try running disc warrior.

 

[nanofrog]

You could try the above suggestions, but it may be a good idea to backup your data, and perform a fresh install of OS X to get it back to where it should be.

 

[bartsphoto]

You could try the above suggestions, but it may be a good idea to backup your data, and perform a fresh install of OS X to get it back to where it should be.

yes I did that what they said but I will just wait for Lion to come up and to a fresh install of the OS
but thanks

 

[nanofrog]

yes I did that what they said but I will just wait for Lion to come up and to a fresh install of the OS
but thanks

Has anything changed recently (i.e. installed applications, OS Update, or file sizes in the applications you normally user)?

I ask, as these things can cause it, and if repeated, can still plague you after a re-install.

 

[MacSince1985]

In addition to all the suggestions above, review the Console to see if anything is causing a hang up. I once had a utility that would almost freeze my Mac until it timed out. You can also keep an eye on Activity Monitor to see what's hogging resources. I've noticed Safari can be a real hog.

Check your disk usage and fragmentation. If it's near full, Virtual memory read/write could be slowing you down.

If you don't want to do a complete reinstall of all your apps, the "Archive and Install" option usually works very well to get you an fresh copy of the OS with most of your settings intact. Of course, if one of those settings is the problem, it will still be there.