Yosemite extremely slow

[InternetDude08]

Desktop is late 2012 iMac 21.5, 3.1 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, FusionDrive. Fast machine, runs Mavericks speedy fast.

I installed the public beta onto a formatted bootable Lexar 64 GB USB3 drive. It installed just fine and runs, but it's extremely slow. It is slow to load apps (takes minutes not seconds). Once loaded the apps are OK (such as browsing in safari, etc.) but loading them initially is super slow.

I made sure the spotlight indexer is not running. And I also did the "Repair Disk permissions" on the drive, which actually helped a tiny bit.

Do you guys have any other tips or ideas for me to try to get this running fast? I did a fresh install, I did not import anything from my main mac account, I haven't even enabled iCloud or iMessaging or anything like that yet.

I already submitted Feedback to Apple regarding the issue.

 

[chabig]

You're booting from a flash drive. Those things are slow--probably 50-100 times slower than an SSD, and 25-50 times slower than a hard drive. Apple can't help you with that.

 

[InternetDude08]

I know a guy with an older Mac running off a USB drive that is not USB3 and his is running fast, no problems.

 

[chabig]

It's not the USB interface that's slow. It's the storage device. A "USB drive" and a "USB flash drive" are not the same thing. Get yourself a small external hard drive and you'll be fine.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

I know a guy with an older Mac running off a USB drive that is not USB3 and his is running fast, no problems.

If its an older Mac, then it's an older OS, and if its an older OS it has less data to request for allowing it to handle it ok. Just think of it as him running Windows 95 on a current machine. You are trying to do the impossible though.

A standard USB reads at around 50-60 MBps and writes at about 3-5MBps. Unless you have one of those extremely expensive USB's that supossidly offer 200+ read/write, running a current OS is going to be painfully slow.

Install it on an external HDD (you could get a 500GB for the same price as a 64GB USB).

 

[johnnnw]

Not sure why you submitted it to Apple when it's your slow USB drive

USB is not inherently slow, but your drive must be.

Use a speed test program and test it, then you'll see the problem.

 

[InternetDude08]

I don't know if it's related but the Spotlightnethelper process never actually runs right, it's always in the Not Responding state. Always.

Hmmm... turns out my USB thumb drive is slower than I realized: 64GB in green (up to 45MB/s read, 20MB/s write)

http://www.lexar.com/products/lexar-jumpdrive-s73-usb-30-flash-drive?category=207

When I bought it I thought it was fast, I guess not fast enough to run an OS.

I don't really want to buy an external drive, I was hoping to run it off a USB thumb drive that I could re-use later, I have enough cables and crap I don't want another drive.

I think this will work though: http://www.lexar.com/products/lexar-jumpdrive-p10-usb3-flash-drive?category=207

 

[chabig]

That newer one you linked to will probably work much better, but it's expensive. Keep in mind that these aren't designed to be used the way you intend--they are for portable data storage. They don't last as long as a hard drive or SSD. Continuous use will wear it out.

 

[InternetDude08]

Do you think a 190 read / 130 write is fast enough? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820326447

I noticed external drives do not give transfer rates, or the ones that I looked at do not. Boo.

 

[Fenderf4i]

Does your Mac have Thunderbolt? If so, get a Thunderbolt drive and use it for something else later.

 

[InternetDude08]

Does your Mac have Thunderbolt? If so, get a Thunderbolt drive and use it for something else later.

Yep. I hate external drives so I'll have to think about it. Obviously the USB stick isn't up to the task.

 

[applCore]

Interesting, I am running this on an SSD and getting quite slow speeds after 30 minutes to 2 hours. Reported to Apple, but no word back yet. Further, Safari is unworldly slow after running for a bit.

Unfortunately I've not been able to track down a / the culprit(s) yet regarding OS X itself or Safari.

 

[InternetDude08]

Update: Well I bought this and installed Yosemite and it's running just fine now: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CG5EF8K/

Problem solved

Up to 265 MB/s read, 245 MB/s write. Not as fast as SSD but I don't care, it's fast enough for me, plus it's more useful for me after the beta is done.

If someone thinks you can't run an OS off a bootable USB stick, send 'em a link to this thread.

 

[Ronnoco]

Update: Well I bought this and installed Yosemite and it's running just fine now: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CG5EF8K/

Problem solved

Up to 265 MB/s read, 245 MB/s write. Not as fast as SSD but I don't care, it's fast enough for me, plus it's more useful for me after the beta is done.

If someone thinks you can't run an OS off a bootable USB stick, send 'em a link to this thread.

I run DP5 on a 64gb USB 3.0 SanDisk Extreme stick and it runs flawlessly.