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We have a 2019 21.5 iMac, Radeon processer, 8GB RAMM and yes unfortunately Fusion drive.
Its getting pretty slow even after a full shutdown, can anything non-physical and not costly be done to get it back to anywhere as new new/normal speed?
Thanks
What version of macOS? What does Disk Utility say about the drive, could be on it's way out?
Its Sinoma 14.0, Disk Utility doesn't show any issues other that 658GB used of 715Gb. Do I need to look somewhere specific for an answer you are looking for?
Clear some disc space - there’s not a lot for the Fusion Drive to play with there.
Is there anything specific that’s slow. My dads 13yr old iMac still rolls along OK.
not really, DU will show any critical errors but I think the drive could slowly be failing and it might not give any indication!Do I need to look somewhere specific for an answer you are looking for?
I know macOS has added some stuff like dynamic desktop etc over the years so I'd make sure that is turned off! Also make sure disk encryption (FileVault) is off as that can really slow things down.
Clear some disc space – there’s not a lot for the Fusion Drive to play with there.
Is there anything specific that’s slow. My dads 13yr old iMac still rolls along OK.
I know nothing about Macs really, but that seems to be a sensible (and free) thing to try... 'fusion' or hybrid drives, to refer to them properly in non-Mac terminology are basically just regular hard old drives with a little SSD piggy backed onto them to act as a kind of memory cache/buffer to the slower read/write on the actual drive.
It doesn't take too much effort to saturate that cache, at which point it will just function like a regular old HDD, i.e Slow.
Looking at iFixit, it’s a non-trivial job to upgrade the internal drive to an SSD, so I’d be considering an external one as a boot disk if that’s within budget.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250003583
Looking at iFixit, it’s a non-trivial job to upgrade the internal drive to an SSD, so I’d be considering an external one as a boot disk if that’s within budget.> https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250003583
I might be talking crap as I'm not a Mac expert, but to use an external drive as boot/OS drive seems a bit backwards... is it not possible just to fit a standard SATA SSD drive internally, and do away with the hybrid drive all together?
And relagate the hybrid drive to external/back up drive duties?
An NVMe 1TB drive in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with appropriate cable should be more than speedy enough to start things up. (Don't skimp on the cable it needs to be 40Gbs Thunderbolt 3 too.
If you're feeling brave and can afford the bits dive into the iFixit site and change the drive for an internal SSD (something new-ish from Samsung) and upgrade the RAM to 32 or 64GB. Don't fry yourself on the power supply capacitors if you go down this route.
Even moving the OS sounds like hours of faff I don’t have time for. <br /><br />
so, this is Jnrs homework machine and I just found 150gb of Flight and Truck sims on it. I also found a barely used 1TB seagate SSD, so we are busy uninstalling and reinstalling the SIMs into that. I also found 100gb in downloads which has vanished via the Trash. <br /><br />So that’ll be 250gb back, let’s see if that helps a bit….
Yeah don't do anything too drastic.
Do a good file/drive space clean up/purge, and then see how you go.
I don't know, or care what 'thunderbolt 3' is, sounds like a proprietary Apple thing akin to USB 3.0
Even if the 'thunderbolt' can (theoretically) transfer data faster than a Pci4e gen4 Nvme M.2 drive.. even on an old PCI/SATA connection your still going to be trying to pump a lot of water through a small pipe into a small bucket if you are using an oldskool hybrid drive.
Sorry, Apple call it a 'fusion drive', but it's the same thing. It's old and shit.
it’s Intel you clown 🤡 😂I don’t know, or care what ‘thunderbolt 3’ is, sounds like a proprietary Apple thing akin to USB 3.0
@zilog6128 TBF the statement was qualified by not knowing what was being talked about! 😉
and yes unfortunately Fusion drive.
they're NOT shit - they were a really good solution to get a lot of space, fast performance, without spending a shitload of money. I really didn't notice any significant performance difference between my 2013 imac and a MacBook of a similar age with a pure SSD drive.
BUT, and big but, performance got a lot worse when the spinning disc started failing and this was NOT something I could detect doing any testing at home - all the tools said it was OK. But Apple in store had tools that picked it up. I paid £190 to replace the drive back in 2019.
Mean time to failure for spinning discs is about 5 years so not unlikely for your iMac. The reason the fusion drives ARE a bit shit is that the rest of the hardware is good for a lot longer than the hard drive and it's not a cheap repair.
Although it's called a Fusion Drive the reality is it's a small SSD and a standard hard drive with custom Apple smarts to go with it - they only replace the spinning disc part.
Perfect topic area for a YouTube driven help to change to a SSD. Assuming you have a good external and Time Machine saving to that drive, its a "relatively" simple thing to do, having done it myself. You'll be best getting another laptop to follow the video whist yours is under the knife screwdriver. Do a bit of checking on which video is clearest, get your new SSD of the size you want from someone like Crucial, then steadily work through it.