Really slow startup on my iMac 2014

[nutcaseguy]

It takes over 20 minutes for my iMac to startup. My imac is Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014 and I am using High Sierra version 10.13.6.

One day it went from starting up in a few minutes, to taking 20 minutes. I have tried booting into safe mode, It makes no difference as it still takes 20 minutes.

That is all I have done to this point. I was hoping for some advice on how to proceed.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you have a fusion drive, then it's very possible that the hard drive portion of that fusion drive is failing.
How to proceed, if the problem could be the hard drive? Replace the hard drive - rebuild the fusion drive.
Or, even better, remove the hard drive, and replace with an SSD. There's several options that you can do, but going to straight SSD will give you better performance, over a fusion drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

Can you boot to internet recovery?
(command-option-R at startup)

If you try this, does it still take 20 minutes?

 

[nutcaseguy]

If you have a fusion drive, then it's very possible that the hard drive portion of that fusion drive is failing.
How to proceed, if the problem could be the hard drive? Replace the hard drive - rebuild the fusion drive.
Or, even better, remove the hard drive, and replace with an SSD. There's several options that you can do, but going to straight SSD will give you better performance, over a fusion drive.

The drive is a SSD

 

[DeltaMac]

Hmmm... I read your first post again. Booting to a SSD should not take "a few minutes", even in normal usage, maybe 30 seconds, at the outside.

Just curious - what size SSD do you have?
How much space is free on the drive?

Have you tried reinstalling macOS?

Did you ever clear out that huge amount of startup items that you reported 4 years ago, on the same iMac? That, by itself, could mean the cause for your long bootup.

How often do you test for adware on your iMac? Malwarebytes, once a month or so, should help give you some assurance that you haven't been loading up on known adware/malware again.

 

[nutcaseguy]

SSD is 500 GB with 155 GB free. This is a different iMac than I had back then. I did boot into safe mode and it still took 20 plus minutes. I have not tried reinstalling macOS yet. I want to eliminate the possibility that this problem is the result of a hardware issue. I just downloaded Malwarebytes and am running it now.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"This is a different iMac than I had back then. I did boot into safe mode and it still took 20 plus minutes."

Booting into safe mode is not the same as booting into internet recovery.
When you boot into safe mode, you are booting from the internal drive.
When you boot to internet recovery, the Mac boots "from the net" without "reaching into" your hard drive.

The reason I'm asking you to try internet recovery is to try "bypassing" the drive to see if the problems might be elsewhere within the Mac.

So, please try this and report back.
1. Power down, all the way off
2. Press the power button
3. IMMEDIATELY hold down "command-option-R" and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN for a while. You should then see the "internet symbol".
4. If you normally connect via wifi, be prepared to enter your wifi password.
5. Do you get to the OS utilities menu in less than 20 minutes doing it this way?

One other thought:
Do you have an external drive around?
One that you could erase and use for some testing?
It could even be a USB flashdrive 32gb or larger.

 

[DeltaMac]

...
3. IMMEDIATELY hold down "command-option-R" and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN for a while. You should then see the "internet symbol".

If you are not sure what the "internet symbol" looks like - it is a spinning globe. You WON'T see the normal Apple icon on this boot.

 

[nutcaseguy]

OP wrote:
"This is a different iMac than I had back then. I did boot into safe mode and it still took 20 plus minutes."

Booting into safe mode is not the same as booting into internet recovery.
When you boot into safe mode, you are booting from the internal drive.
When you boot to internet recovery, the Mac boots "from the net" without "reaching into" your hard drive.

The reason I'm asking you to try internet recovery is to try "bypassing" the drive to see if the problems might be elsewhere within the Mac.

So, please try this and report back.
1. Power down, all the way off
2. Press the power button
3. IMMEDIATELY hold down "command-option-R" and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN for a while. You should then see the "internet symbol".
4. If you normally connect via wifi, be prepared to enter your wifi password.
5. Do you get to the OS utilities menu in less than 20 minutes doing it this way?

One other thought:
Do you have an external drive around?
One that you could erase and use for some testing?
It could even be a USB flashdrive 32gb or larger.

I am not saying that booting into safe mode is the same as booting into internet recovery. I mentioned booting into safe mode simply to explain what actions I have taken to troubleshoot. I will try booting into internet recovery today. I may have to keep holding down the keys for a LONG TIME.

 

[DeltaMac]

I am not saying that booting into safe mode is the same as booting into internet recovery. I mentioned booting into safe mode simply to explain what actions I have taken to troubleshoot. I will try booting into internet recovery today. I may have to keep holding down the keys for a LONG TIME.

You can release the keys when you see the spinning globe appear. After that, it's just waiting.
If you see the Apple icon, then you "did it wrong" Shut down, and try it again.

 

[nutcaseguy]

You can release the keys when you see the spinning globe appear. After that, it's just waiting.
If you see the Apple icon, then you "did it wrong" Shut down, and try it again.

[doublepost=1540574629][/doublepost]Fixed it !! I disconnected all devices from the computer. I then restarted. The computer booted up almost instantly. My computer was having a difficult time connecting to my attached external drives, etc. By a process of elimination, I determined that my RAID storage was the culprit. I swapped out the USB cable with a new one and the problem was solved !! ( I probably should have started with disconnecting all devices as the first step in troubleshooting )

Thanks to all for your assistance.