I posted on this topic back on the 22nd of August this year. The occasional slowness is driving me nuts. I've run Malware bytes yet again, and achieved no result. The report shows zero threats and yet seemed to take foreveer at 7 minutes 43 seconds to scan 34,392 items.

Activity monitor seems to show nothing out of the ordinary. I am wonering if re-installing the OS would be of benefit. If so.........................?

1. Can I reinstall the OS without detriment to the existing files?
2. Would there be any change to TM.?

Can anyone on this NG advise me to the contrary?

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, 2019)
Processor 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3
Memory 8 GB 2400 MHZ DDR4
Graphics Radeon Pro 555X 2 GB
HD 1 TB Solid State SATA Drive

Peter
--
The email shown is false. If you need to contact me then try peterATpfjamesDOTcoDOTuk

Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts.
Saki (H.H.Munro) 1870 - 1916

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In article <[email protected]>, Peter James <[email protected]> wrote:

I posted on this topic back on the 22nd of August this year. The occasional slowness is driving me nuts. I've run Malware bytes yet again, and achieved no
result. The report shows zero threats and yet seemed to take foreveer at 7 minutes 43 seconds to scan 34,392 items.

that sounds like a failing hard drive.

Activity monitor seems to show nothing out of the ordinary. I am wonering if re-installing the OS would be of benefit. If so.........................?

it's unlikely that it will help.

1. Can I reinstall the OS without detriment to the existing files?

yes, but always be sure to have a backup, just in case.

2. Would there be any change to TM.?

no.

before you do that, clone the internal drive to an external hard drive
and then boot from the external. if it's not as slow then it's almost
certainly due to the internal hard drive failing.

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Peter James <[email protected]> wrote:

I posted on this topic back on the 22nd of August this year. The occasional slowness is driving me nuts. I've run Malware bytes yet again, and achieved no
result. The report shows zero threats and yet seemed to take foreveer at 7 minutes 43 seconds to scan 34,392 items.

Activity monitor seems to show nothing out of the ordinary. I am wonering if re-installing the OS would be of benefit. If so.........................?

1. Can I reinstall the OS without detriment to the existing files?

Yes.

2. Would there be any change to TM.?

One would like to think the current settings would be preserved.

Is there still plenty of space on your internal drive?

Has Etrecheck shown any problems?

--
Cheers, Alan

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In article <SAlTK.272366$[email protected]>, HunterBD <[email protected]d> wrote:

clone the internal drive to an external hard drive
and then boot from the external. if it's not as slow then it's almost certainly due to the internal hard drive failing.

How does one do that?

by using clamxav.

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On 11/09/2022 12:52, nospam wrote:

clone the internal drive to an external hard drive
and then boot from the external. if it's not as slow then it's almost certainly due to the internal hard drive failing.

How does one do that?

Is there an Apple guidance note?

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Peter James <[email protected]> wrote:

I posted on this topic back on the 22nd of August this year. The occasional slowness is driving me nuts. I've run Malware bytes yet again, and achieved no
result. The report shows zero threats and yet seemed to take foreveer at 7 minutes 43 seconds to scan 34,392 items.

That does sound like the symptoms of a failing Disk drive.

I’ve found DriveDX to be useful in diagnosing this, it reports data that *could* indicate if a drive is failing. I usually find an increasing sector reallocation is a good start.

Activity monitor seems to show nothing out of the ordinary. I am wonering if re-installing the OS would be of benefit. If so.........................?

It’s possible, but only if it might be a corrupt system file.

1. Can I reinstall the OS without detriment to the existing files?

Yes, as long as you have a good backup. You can reinstall over the existing system, or you can wipe and reinstall from scratch and recover data from
the TM drive.

2. Would there be any change to TM.?

Only once it starts backing up again after the reinstall, it’ll update any changed files.

Can anyone on this NG advise me to the contrary?

Your biggest issue is if TM is your only backup, and it happens to be the failing drive.

It could be other factors too, even a dodgy USB cable, hub (or hub PSU), or drive enclosure, could be the culprit.

iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, 2019)
Processor 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3
Memory 8 GB 2400 MHZ DDR4
Graphics Radeon Pro 555X 2 GB
HD 1 TB Solid State SATA Drive

How often does the slowdown occur? If it can be experienced easily, try
running with nothing plugged in at all for a while. If that fixes it temporarily, plug things in one at a time until it starts happening again.
Then you might have a chance of finding the cause.

--
Andy H

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In article <tfktc8$1vcq0$[email protected]>,
Andy Hewitt <[email protected]> wrote:

I posted on this topic back on the 22nd of August this year. The occasional >> slowness is driving me nuts. I've run Malware bytes yet again, and achieved no
result. The report shows zero threats and yet seemed to take foreveer at 7 >> minutes 43 seconds to scan 34,392 items.

Does it *only* happen during Time Machine backups?

[...]

Your biggest issue is if TM is your only backup, and it happens to be the >failing drive.

Just to reiterate that: you absolutely don't want to wipe either your
computer or the Time Machine drive if it might be the other one that's
faulty.

-- Richard

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On 11/09/2022 14:44, nospam wrote:

In article <SAlTK.272366$[email protected]>, HunterBD <[email protected]d> wrote:

clone the internal drive to an external hard drive
and then boot from the external. if it's not as slow then it's almost
certainly due to the internal hard drive failing.

How does one do that?

by using clamxav.

Did you spell it correctly? https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15850/clamxav#comments

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Richard Tobin <[email protected]> wrote:

In article <tfktc8$1vcq0$[email protected]>,
Andy Hewitt <[email protected]> wrote:

I posted on this topic back on the 22nd of August this year. The occasional >>> slowness is driving me nuts. I've run Malware bytes yet again, and achieved no
result. The report shows zero threats and yet seemed to take foreveer at 7 >>> minutes 43 seconds to scan 34,392 items.

Does it *only* happen during Time Machine backups?

[...]

Your biggest issue is if TM is your only backup, and it happens to be the
failing drive.

Just to reiterate that: you absolutely don't want to wipe either your computer or the Time Machine drive if it might be the other one that's faulty.

It might be a good idea to create a new backup on another external drive.
If he uses something like CCC, he could create a bootable backup preferably
on a SSD. I also have a bootable macOS installer on a USB stick in case my system goes totally legs up (although with Intel Macs, internet recovery
should be possible).

--
Cheers, Alan

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