Martin Lévay Do you have a spinning rainbow wheel on your monitor too often? The solution is a complete reinstall or you can use our tutorial which can save several hours of your time.
In this article, I will describe solutions to the most common problems I encountered when upgrading to Mountain Lion. In practice, I have met dozens of well-functioning older MacBooks and iMacs with OS X Lion or Mountain Lion, and there is no reason not to switch to them. Computers behaved very well after adding RAM and possibly a new disk. I can recommend upgrading to Mountain Lion. But. There is a small one here SALE.
Noticeable slowdown
Yes, often the computer becomes noticeably slower after upgrading from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. We won't waste time figuring out why, but we'll jump straight to the solution. But if we used Snow Leopard and installed a few applications and downloaded a few updates, then the computer usually slows down noticeably after upgrading to Lion. The first impression is usually due to the internal "mds" process that it is responsible for Time Machine (& Spotlight), which scans the disk to see what it has available. This initialization process may take a few hours. Which is usually the time in which less patient individuals will sigh and declare their Mac to be unsatisfyingly slow. The more data we have on the disk, the longer the computer will index the files. However, after the indexing is finished, the computer usually does not speed up, although I cannot explain the reasons, but you can find the solution below.
Facts and experiences
If I use Snow Leopard for a long time and upgrade to Mountain Lion using the standard installation procedure via Mac App Store, the Mac usually slows down. I encountered this repeatedly, most likely this problem bothers most users. I experienced a quad-core Mac mini that processed any effect in Aperture for tens of seconds, the rainbow wheel was on the display more often than was healthy. A dual-core MacBook Air 13″ with 4GB RAM had the same effect with the same Aperture library done in under a second! On paper, a weaker computer was several times faster!
The solution is to reinstall
But reinstalling is not like reinstalling. There are several ways to reinstall the system. I will describe here the one that has worked for me. Of course, you don't have to follow it to the letter, but then I can't vouch for the result.
What you will need
A hard drive, a USB flash drive, a set of connection cables, an installation DVD (if you have one) and an Internet connection.
Strategy A
First I have to backup the system, then format the disk and then install a clean system with an empty user. Then I create a new user, switch to it and gradually copy the original data from Desktop, Documents, Pictures and so on. This is the best solution, laborious but one hundred percent. In the next step, you will need to activate iCloud and, of course, all settings, applications, and reset passwords on websites. We also need to install apps and update them. We start with a clean computer with no history and no skeletons in the closet. Pay attention to the backup, a lot of things can go wrong there, you will find more later in the article.
Strategy B
My customers don't have a computer for gaming, they mostly use it for work purposes. If you don't have a sophisticated password system, you won't be able to get your computer up and running quickly enough. Therefore, I will also describe the second procedure, but two out of ten reinstallations did not solve the problem. But I don't know the reasons.
Important! I will assume that you know very well what you are doing and what the consequences will be. It's definitely worth a try, I have an 80% success rate.
As in the first case, I have to back up, but preferably twice on two disks, as I describe below. I'll test the backups and then format the drive. After the installation is complete, instead of creating a new user, I choose Restore from a Time Machine backup. And now it's important. When I load the profile, I see a list of what I can install when restoring from a backup disk. The less you check, the more likely it is that your computer will actually speed up.
Approach:
1. Backup
2. Format the disk
3. Install the system
4. Restore data from backup
1. Backup
We can back up in three ways. The most convenient is to use Time Machine. Here you need to check that we are backing up everything, that some folders are not being left out of the backup. The second way is to use Disk Utility to create a new image, i.e. create a disk image, a DMG file. This is a higher girl's, if you don't know, you better not bother with it, they are going to do irreversible damage. And the third backup method is barbaric copying of files to an external drive. Brutally simple, brutally functional, but no history, no passwords, no profile settings. That is, laborious, but with the maximum chance of acceleration. You can also manually back up several system components, such as e-mails, Keychain and the like, but this requires not a little experience, but a LOT of EXPERIENCE and definitely google skills. I recommend using a complete backup via Time Machine, this can be done by most users without much risk.
2. Format the disk
It's not working, is it? Sure, you can't format the drive you're currently loading data from. Here it is important to know exactly what you are doing. If you're not sure, trust the experts who have done it repeatedly. Salespeople don't necessarily have to be experts, want someone who has done it a few times. Personally, I first test whether it is possible to load the data from the backup, because I have already crashed twice and sweated badly. Don't want to experience that moment when you delete someone's 3 years of work and all their family photos, and the backup can't be loaded. But to the point: you need to restart and press the key after the restart Alt, and select Recovery 10.8, and if even then it is not possible to format the internal disk, you need to start the system from another (external) disk and only then format the disk. This is the moment where you can lose a lot again, really think twice about spending a few hundred on the work of an expert and entrusting yourself to someone who REALLY CAN do it.
3. Install the system
If you have an empty disk, or you have replaced it with an SSD, you need to install the system. First you have to start, boot. For this you need the mentioned Recovery disk. If it is not already on the new disk, it is necessary to make the bootable USB Flash disk operational beforehand. This is where I warned at the beginning of the article that you really need to know exactly what you're doing. If you format the drive and can't boot, you're stuck and need to find another computer. Therefore, it is better to have experience and two computers and know exactly what you are doing and how to get out of any problems. I solve it with an external disk where I have an installed system from which I can boot a fully functional Mac OS X. It's not a voodoo magic, I just have five of those disks and I use one of them for computer service. If you are doing this for the first time and only once, it is too much work for me to explain and those who know what I am talking about have something like this.
4. Restore data from backup
I use two methods. The first is that after installing the system on a clean disk, the installer asks if I want to restore data from a Time capsule backup. This is what I most often want and I will select the entire user and leave out the applications that I like to install most from the App Store and possibly from downloaded installation DMGs. The second way is that I create an empty Install or Admin profile during installation and download the updates after the system boots, but be careful – I have to install the iLife applications separately! iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband are not part of the system and I don't have an installation disc for iLife unless I bought them separately via the App Store! The solution is to load the data from the backup by returning the installed applications as well, but by doing so I risk not speeding up the system and maintaining the original error and thus the "slowness" of the system.
I emphasize that many mistakes can be made during reinstallation. So it is better to trust in the hands of experienced professionals. Really advanced users can use this tutorial, but beginners with a slow Mac should have someone on hand to help them when "something goes wrong". And I will add a technical note.
Mac OS X Leopard and zombies
When I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard, the system went from 32-bit to 64-bit, and iMovie and iPhoto became noticeably faster. So if you have an older Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, be sure to reinstall Mountain Lion with 3 GB of RAM. If you do it right, you will improve. Computers with G3 and G4 processors can only do Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion cannot really be installed on G3 and G4 processors. Attention, some older motherboards can only use 4 GB of RAM out of 3 GB. So don't be surprised that after inserting 2 pieces of 2 GB (total 4 GB) modules into a white Macbook, only 3 GB of RAM is displayed.
And of course, you get even more speedup by replacing the mechanical drive with an SSD. Then even 2 GB of RAM is not such an insurmountable problem. But if you play with video in iMovie or use iCloud, an SSD and at least 8 GB of RAM have their magic. It's definitely worth the money, even if you have a MacBook with a Core 2 Duo and some basic graphics card. For effects and animations in Final Cut X, you need a better graphics card than iMovie, but that's on a different topic.
What to say in conclusion?
I wanted to give hope to anyone who thinks they have a slow Mac. This is a way to really speed up your Mac to the max without buying new hardware. That's why I fought so hard against various improvements and accelerator programs in this article.
You can't make your Mac faster by installing extra software on it. Howgh!
The Migration Assistant included in the system has proven very useful for me. Transfers the complete bill, incl. rights, which is important, because after restoring data from a backup, e.g. from Time Machine, the rights may be lost...
Yes, I also use Migration Assistant, it's an excellent tool, but only when there are no problems with the computer's behavior. So when there is a problem (slow start-up, low performance in Photoshop or iMovie, fans at full blast, the application does not work), he has already pulled that error for me a few times. So Migration Assistant definitely does after a disk replacement, a disk crash or any data loss. On the whole, Mac OS X can do things that are mind-boggling, but that doesn't belong here.
I would be interested in such an article :-)
Basically, it could be called the Disk Utility Championship :-) I only use tools from Apple, they are at hand, they are part of the system and most importantly: they work the same ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE. Time Machine, Migration Assistant, Activity Monitor and Disk Utility are totally sufficient for analyzing and managing Macs.
I'll try to write something, I wanted to make a video tutorial anyway... but it will take time, certainly not in the next month.
I'll see something if I use them several times a day
Hello, thanks for the article. It will come in handy when upgrading HDD to SSD in Mac :)
But one thing interests me. Why do you create a new user after a clean installation?
Dik
I would also be interested in that user. Thanks, I'll reinstall my MacBook over the weekend.
The reason is quite simple. When transferring the profile to another computer, an unwanted error or setting was also transferred. We simply couldn't find it in the Library folder, so creating new users and thus eliminating the error was the only 100% solution after several attempts. Laborious, but ALWAYS less laborious than finding a fault. How do you want to look for an error when, for example, the computer wakes up for tens of seconds? And at the same time, the test of booting from another disk showed that the computer is fine, that the user profile is doing it. And the user profile is DATA and SETTINGS. So when I didn't transfer the settings, the problem was solved.
Thanks for the response, but I meant a clean system installation, or did I misunderstand? I assume that after a clean installation the user will be sufficiently "clean" :)
The point is that after installation, instead of creating a user, the system will offer to import it from the Time Machine disk, thereby absorbing the original version with an error. Therefore, not "restore from backup", but "create new". Feel free to use the original name and password, thanks to which access to backups and all network drives will remain.
The article can definitely help a lot of people. I used to have this problem on a white 2010 MacBook, but I no longer have it. I recently bought a Retina MacBook Pro 13″ in basic configuration and I have a problem waking the computer from sleep mode. It takes him an awfully long time! I just opened the white one and woke up right away, but with the Pro I have to press the power button about 5 times before the display lights up. Does anyone know where the problem might be?
A simple test. Create a new user and set up for basic work. For example, set Apple ID and mails, if the problem repeats itself in this profile, then it may be caused by an application such as an antivirus, accelerator, tuner, debugger, cleaner and similar software garbage from the Windows world. Only reinstallation and not installing the mentioned software will help there. A telltale sign of software junk is that even though it's free, it very often prompts you to pay :-)
Thanks for the advice. I tried a new user and still the same problem. I do not install any antivirus or similar ballast on the Mac due to the previous only bad experiences on the former MacBook. I have had the Retina for about a month and this problem started appearing after about a week. I have the same installed applications as on the white MacBook, where everything works fine. The interesting thing is that this problem appears only sometimes, e.g. now the MacBook turned on immediately. I turned off the "Sleep hard drives whenever possible" function in the settings, but nothing changed.
If it happens again even with an empty profile, then I would try to transfer the profile to another computer, for example the MacBook, if it is still available. This can rule out a HW error.
Just a detail. If I have multiple apps running and I'm downloading something or exporting a video or doing something similar with large blocks of data, it takes a while to "sleep" when I close the display, and if I open the display before it's done sleeping, then my display "reverses". When I close it, the computer runs, when I open it, the computer goes to sleep, you can tell by the white pulsating LED on the front edge. But it's not freezing, it's just that the computer can't be woken up at all and the solution is to hold down the shutdown button for about 5 seconds :-)
I would backup and reinstall, not restoring from a backup, but setup everything from scratch and then just copy the original data to my profile. It is indeed laborious, but if I use iCLoud and then write down the passwords from the Keychain before starting, it is cool and certainly faster than looking for an error or using a computer for sixty thousand that does not work as it should.
It would probably be possible to convert the profile to a white MacBook. Otherwise, I remind you that this is not a 15″ model, but a 13″ model. The Retina 13" lacks the LED indicator on the front and doesn't cost as much as the 15", but even so, with a price tag just under forty thousand, I expect flawless operation. The interesting thing is that after installing all the updates in the App Store, the problem no longer appeared. None of the updates were system-wide (just some extended support for RAW formats from different cameras and updates to a few apps), but as I wrote, it doesn't always show up. It usually does this when the MacBook is in sleep mode for a long time (overnight, etc.). It hasn't happened to me once today. I turned it on about 3 times either after a few tens of minutes and once after about 5 hours. I don't understand the moodiness of that machine :D. I was in iStyle with it where I bought it and of course it didn't show up on their counter. Everything else works perfectly, but this really gets my blood pumping once in a while!
A random error cannot be found until we find the exact procedure to reproduce it. I suggest reinstalling, creating a new user and starting from scratch. If the error still occurs after that, it is caused by one of the programs, a bad user procedure, or it may really be a hardware error. I think reinstalling with subsequent updates will fix it. Anyway, it shouldn't happen, it's not normal behavior. The Desktop should appear within 5-10 seconds after opening the display, I am connected to WiFi and can move the mouse and mark files on the Desktop. With SSD, that time is shorter.
I'm thinking of trying to turn off Power Nap
what is this nonsense? anyone can boot from USB, and click too. The slowness of the system was solved by reinstallation on a completely different system. What should be done instead of reinstallation, try to create a new user and just move the data to him? That's the question of the moment. What needs to be written about how to move the address book as root, how to change the userid, what if I don't have rights to the old user's files? I need something about what I can delete from ~Library/ and what I can keep…. If the author is an expert, then I am an airplane.
So you can start writing, so we know what kind of "expert" you are 😂
So far, you've only managed to rant and shout into the dark. Pro 😂😂😂
Thanks everyone for the advice. The problem is already solved. It was probably an error in one of the installed programs, because after the updates in the Mac App Store, this problem no longer occurs.