Platform are highly reliant on systems running ®Apple macOS® operating system software. This guide provides performance-tuning and user-experience configurations for macOS 10.13+ with the Isilon OneFS operating system, version 8.1.x. Audience This guide assumes the reader is proficient with macOS, the macOS command-line interface, and Unix-style. I have an Intel PB about 2 years old. About a month ago I realized that my HD was almost full and began to get rid of stuff to free up space. I've emptied my trash. I now have 13 GB free; 97 GB used. When I start up my mac it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r (10-15 minutes?) to load up and get me to the desktop. It is good practice to have at least 10-15% free on a hard drive, on any computer. If you filled your mac up to the brim, it will perform slower because it has to deal with many more files. It will also write much slower as it will take longer to find free space on the disk. If this is the case, try to free up some space.
Ways to help make a slow Mac faster
Avoid using any third-party software that claims to clean up your computer. Usually this software does more bad than good. Furthermore, you don't need it. Note that all computers will become slower over time even under normal use. Experienced users typically erase the hard drive and do a clean install from scratch at least once a year or whenever installing a major OS upgrade. Of course doing so also means you must maintain regular and multiple backups.
Add more RAM or cut back on the number of concurrently running applications and utilities. Remove unnecessary software such as anti-malware and software that promises to clean your Mac. Check for runaway processes: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan acti… Also see:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the %CPU column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of %CPU, then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
The Ultimate Fix
Backup everything, erase the drive, reinstall OS X, and restore your data from the backup. Reinstall third-party software from original media/scratch.
Jan 26, 2016 11:23 AM