Running out of RAM/Startup disc full

[naerct]

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test reports 75MB for the 5400RMP hard disk, so it's not that slow.
Swap file sizes were increasing a long time ago, the first was 64MB, then they doubled until they reached 1GB, now on High Sierra they are simply 1GB each. As you can see, not enough memory was always an issue for me.

First let me apologize for my error with the speed of the 2.5" HDD. I actually got bit higher on the same tester, closer to 80MB/s, but I have an early Seagate 750MB that has a small strip of SSDs that made it a little faster, in its day. That's my internal backup for a 500GB SSD. I think I got the internal speed mixed up with the USB speed, as I use most of those old HDDs on a Sabrient cable that works without a case, going from the SATA end to a USB3 plug. Great for saving space.
Also, I believe that the OS swap file is not to a fixed size, but just gives you what you need to use the RAM most efficiently (within certain parameters). I don't follow exactly how it's working or how big it is. Most OS swap files only have trouble if you have your Photoshop and Capture One with scratch disks on the same boot drive. This creates the spinning rainbow symbol of death as well as slowdowns. The only good thing about having short memory is that it can only use a limited amount of scratch.
I consider "not that slow" to items like SATA SSDs (<600MB/s) or the first generation of NVMe drives on a PCI 2.0 mobs which is about 800MB/s. I might even put a new 3.5" HDD in that category, as it got over 200MB/s to my surprise... but not a 2.5 HDD.

 

[biziclop]

This late 2010 MacBook Air is regrettably too old for any OSX later than El Capitan, and its resources of RAM and storage are tiny, 2GB and 60 GB respectively. That places a severe limit on what I can do. Is it feasible to move applications to a memory-stick, and launch them when wanted from there ? What about moving everything in the way of data-files to iCloud Drive ? As you can see, I am looking for simple,essentially non-technical, solutions. Meanwhile, I am grateful to everyone that has come to my aid !

If it has an sd-card reader, then yes. While memory cards cannot be written too many times, you only have to copy the application once. There may be some apps that doesn't like being outside the /Applications folder, but you can always try it out.

Also, you can try using compressed disk images for non-changing contents, like … most applications too. Except it's a bit uncomfy to open them every time you need something from them.

 

[paieye]

Thank you, I shall look at that.