topic Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac in Electronics

Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

glb613 — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 12:57:29 GMT

My iMac has become so slow, it's almost unusable. I have done a couple of fixes, memory clean and repair the hard drive through the disk utility, and it is a little better. I'm thinking about reinstalling the operating system, without formatting or erasing the hard drive, to see if that also helps with performance. Has anyone done this? If so, do your Apps work as before or do they need to be reinstalled?

I've formatted and reinstalled Windows many, many times but I've never reinstalled the operating system on a Mac. I've done searches and haven't found a direct answer to this question. I'm also going to take it into a authorized repair shop to add additional memory. I'd rather not spend the money for a new computer if possible. But, my patience is growing thin waiting for programs to load.

I have made a complete backup but wonder if that would just put back the problems I'm having. I also need to get a new external drive so I can manually save photos, documents, music, videos, downloads, etc. I'm not planning on doing the reinstall right away. Thanks.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

meem120 — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:09:33 GMT

I too am having a similiar issue with my 12 year old Mac Laptop. I was hoping there was something like Restore as on Windows for Mac, but I havent found anything like that that I would be comfortable doing. Novice here with anything to do with hardware. Its so slow loading and the little circle just spins and spins. I wish there was something like CTRL ALT DELETE also to end programs. Maybe its just time for a new one. Ive not had one problem with it previously and do prefer over Windows ALOT.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

I am still oxox — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:10:21 GMT

Call Apple or take your phone to an authorized repair or an Apple store

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

meem120 — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:12:56 GMT

Its not our Iphone, its our computer and laptop.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

Krimpette — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 13:55:37 GMT

@meem120 i've used option-command-esc on my MacBook Pro.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

jackthebear — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 15:26:31 GMT

@glb613 wrote:
My iMac has become so slow, it's almost unusable. I have done a couple of fixes, memory clean and repair the hard drive through the disk utility, and it is a little better. I'm thinking about reinstalling the operating system, without formatting or erasing the hard drive, to see if that also helps with performance. Has anyone done this? If so, do your Apps work as before or do they need to be reinstalled?

I've formatted and reinstalled Windows many, many times but I've never reinstalled the operating system on a Mac. I've done searches and haven't found a direct answer to this question. I'm also going to take it into a authorized repair shop to add additional memory. I'd rather not spend the money for a new computer if possible. But, my patience is growing thin waiting for programs to load.

I have made a complete backup but wonder if that would just put back the problems I'm having. I also need to get a new external drive so I can manually save photos, documents, music, videos, downloads, etc. I'm not planning on doing the reinstall right away. Thanks.

adding more memory is a DIY job, my daughter did that on her old Macbook, but you might be approaching a point at which the OS is too big for the hardware to handle.

more memory chips are relatively cheap, and YTube has tutorials on how to add them

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

I am still oxox — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 16:59:38 GMT

@meem120 wrote:
Its not our Iphone, its our computer and laptop.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

glb613 — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 17:56:36 GMT

I called the Apple repair business and they said it could be a failing hard drive. It make sense and wouldn't surprise me. I went out and bought a new external hard drive, I'm transferring everything I can't afford to lose, making a backup from today (I deleted a bunch of stuff that will be on yesterday's backup) and I'm going to reinstall the operating system. If that doesn't work, I'll take it to the repair shop and have a new hard drive installed. I'm not comfortable opening an all-in-one case or I'd do it myself. I'll post back with what happens for anyone who is having the same problems.

edit: I spoke with my sister and she suggested it might be the latest operating system is too much for my older iMac. I did check them out at Best Buy and the retina display is gorgeous. A new iMac may be in my future.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

gardenman — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 11:44:24 GMT

@glb613 wrote:
I called the Apple repair business and they said it could be a failing hard drive. It make sense and wouldn't surprise me. I went out and bought a new external hard drive, I'm transferring everything I can't afford to lose, making a backup from today (I deleted a bunch of stuff that will be on yesterday's backup) and I'm going to reinstall the operating system. If that doesn't work, I'll take it to the repair shop and have a new hard drive installed. I'm not comfortable opening an all-in-one case or I'd do it myself. I'll post back with what happens for anyone who is having the same problems.

edit: I spoke with my sister and she suggested it might be the latest operating system is too much for my older iMac. I did check them out at Best Buy and the retina display is gorgeous. A new iMac may be in my future.

I'm not an Apple expert, but I believe most Apple all-in-ones have a little memory access port on the bottom of the display where you can easily access the memory sticks to swap out or upgrade the memory. Check out the bottom of your monitor and you might just find that port. I'm pretty sure you don't have to remove the entire back to access the memory, but there's a small access port on the bottom of the display.

I doubt that it's a failing hard drive. If there's no unusual noise from the hard drive (a typicaly early sign of hard drive failure.) It's more likely the newer OS is just using more resources than your older hardware can provide.

This is kid of a pet peeve of mine. Hardware advances over the last twenty plus years should have made modern comptuers blindingly fast, but the OS makers keep making bigger and bigger OS's to use up that speed so our user experience is more or less the same as it was twenty years ago. I'm not sure the guys at Google with their Chromebooks and their small, fast, reliable Chrome OS don't have the right idea. When I rebuilt this computer over the winter I threw in a six core processor and an SSD and it's blindingly fast for now, but give the OS makers a few years and they'll slow it down.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

apple1964 — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 13:37:21 GMT

Your computer sounds very old... maybe it will not work with this new software. After 12 years you had a good run perhaps , its time for a new computer?

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

glb613 — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 14:36:50 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
@glb613 wrote:
I called the Apple repair business and they said it could be a failing hard drive. It make sense and wouldn't surprise me. I went out and bought a new external hard drive, I'm transferring everything I can't afford to lose, making a backup from today (I deleted a bunch of stuff that will be on yesterday's backup) and I'm going to reinstall the operating system. If that doesn't work, I'll take it to the repair shop and have a new hard drive installed. I'm not comfortable opening an all-in-one case or I'd do it myself. I'll post back with what happens for anyone who is having the same problems.

edit: I spoke with my sister and she suggested it might be the latest operating system is too much for my older iMac. I did check them out at Best Buy and the retina display is gorgeous. A new iMac may be in my future.
I'm not an Apple expert, but I believe most Apple all-in-ones have a little memory access port on the bottom of the display where you can easily access the memory sticks to swap out or upgrade the memory. Check out the bottom of your monitor and you might just find that port. I'm pretty sure you don't have to remove the entire back to access the memory, but there's a small access port on the bottom of the display.

I doubt that it's a failing hard drive. If there's no unusual noise from the hard drive (a typicaly early sign of hard drive failure.) It's more likely the newer OS is just using more resources than your older hardware can provide.

This is kid of a pet peeve of mine. Hardware advances over the last twenty plus years should have made modern comptuers blindingly fast, but the OS makers keep making bigger and bigger OS's to use up that speed so our user experience is more or less the same as it was twenty years ago. I'm not sure the guys at Google with their Chromebooks and their small, fast, reliable Chrome OS don't have the right idea. When I rebuilt this computer over the winter I threw in a six core processor and an SSD and it's blindingly fast for now, but give the OS makers a few years and they'll slow it down.

I did a memory clean, ran first aid and the computer is running better this morning. I saved data and made a backup but, I'm not sure how to save all of the e-mail messages I have in folders. My mail is stored in icloud but, I don't know if it includes the ones in folders and no longer in the inbox.

I'm sure updating to the newest operating system has a lot to do with the slowness. I never updated to the newest versions of Windows when I had a windows based computer. I always bought new with the new operating system preinstalled. My iMac is getting old but up until lately, it was working great. Buying a new iMac isn't cheap so, I'd like to remedy this and try to get another year out of it. I'll look at the bottom of the iMac and see if I can find the slot you're talking about. Perhaps adding additional memory will help with the performance.

The odd thing is, my Macbook Pro hasn't been effected. It still runs great with the latest operating system installed. It has a faster processor and a SS hard drive which I know helps.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

jaxs mom — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 19:08:51 GMT

@jackthebear wrote:
@glb613 wrote:
My iMac has become so slow, it's almost unusable. I have done a couple of fixes, memory clean and repair the hard drive through the disk utility, and it is a little better. I'm thinking about reinstalling the operating system, without formatting or erasing the hard drive, to see if that also helps with performance. Has anyone done this? If so, do your Apps work as before or do they need to be reinstalled?

I've formatted and reinstalled Windows many, many times but I've never reinstalled the operating system on a Mac. I've done searches and haven't found a direct answer to this question. I'm also going to take it into a authorized repair shop to add additional memory. I'd rather not spend the money for a new computer if possible. But, my patience is growing thin waiting for programs to load.

I have made a complete backup but wonder if that would just put back the problems I'm having. I also need to get a new external drive so I can manually save photos, documents, music, videos, downloads, etc. I'm not planning on doing the reinstall right away. Thanks.
adding more memory is a DIY job, my daughter did that on her old Macbook, but you might be approaching a point at which the OS is too big for the hardware to handle.

more memory chips are relatively cheap, and YTube has tutorials on how to add them

You can no longer do that on the newer models of the imac, I have a mid 2015 and I can't. The slot that was there on my previous imac is gone.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

glb613 — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 19:53:30 GMT

@jaxs mom wrote:

You can no longer do that on the newer models of the imac, I have a mid 2015 and I can't. The slot that was there on my previous imac is gone.

Thanks for the information. If I buy new, I'd better get the amount I want when I buy it.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

Mz iMac — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 01:52:43 GMT

@glb613

Depending on the model iMac (2017), you can install the

RAM yourself. I have the mid level iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

~~which Apple gave me for free~~. I maxed out the memory w/3rd party RAM myself. Well actually my paramour installed it because I did not have the strength to push the RAM in the slots to hear the "snap" sound. You really need the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

glb613 — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 09:57:06 GMT

I'm going to try a few things before I buy new. I downloaded the operating system update and it took more than twice as long to install on my iMac as it did my Macbook Pro. So, there is something going on with the computer. Thanks for off of the suggestions and advice.

Re: Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

gardenman — Sat, 28 Oct 2017 11:21:18 GMT

@Mz iMac wrote:
@glb613

Depending on the model iMac (2017), you can install the
RAM yourself. I have the mid level iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)
~~which Apple gave me for free~~. I maxed out the memory w/3rd party RAM myself. Well actually my paramour installed it because I did not have the strength to push the RAM in the slots to hear the "snap" sound. You really need the strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Install memory in an iMac - Apple Support

Reportedly on some newer iMac's they've started soldering in the RAM for some reason. I don't know why they'd find that necessary, but apparently they are on some of the newer models. I'm guessing they just assume that the vast majority of customers never upgrade the RAM and it's cheaper to solder it in then install the sockets for RAM sticks. You don't really expect such cost cutting moves on a premium priced device however.