Question about reinstalling the operating system on an iMac

glb613 · ‎03-09-2010

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.

meem120 · ‎03-09-2010

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.

I am still oxox · ‎03-09-2010

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

Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being positive what could go right.

meem120 · ‎03-09-2010

Its not our Iphone, its our computer and laptop.

Krimpette · ‎03-09-2010

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

jackthebear · ‎03-11-2010

@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

I am still oxox · ‎03-09-2010

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

Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being positive what could go right.

glb613 · ‎03-09-2010

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.

gardenman · ‎03-09-2010

@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.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!

apple1964 · ‎08-07-2013

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?