Apple Intelligence is now available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac!

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Updated Mac Mini Later 2012 to Catalina OS X - Slow for over 2 weeks

Please help, my mac mini is incredibly slow after upgrade to the latest operating system. I start up my Mac at 11am and I can not use it until now (2:15pm). I have tried everything Mac Clean X, cahche, removing old apps, removing agents, Siri, voice control, display properties, extensions, etc. I have googled all the "try this" articles. I have even followed each point from Apples' official guide:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mac-help/mchlp1731/mac

Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 19, 2020 11:16 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 19, 2020 8:02 PM

Did you review the Report? Etrecheck thinks you have a failing hard drive. Good opportunity to upgrade to an SSD.

As I mentioned, a slow, spinning hard drive is not the best choice for either Mojave or Catalina. Not only do you have a 5400 RPM hard drive, it is failing. Double whammy.

Not only do you have a failing 5400 RPM hard drive, you only have 4GB of RAM. Triple whammy.

If you don't have a backup, you should make one now.

5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 19, 2020 8:02 PM in response to Jones-Mac

Did you review the Report? Etrecheck thinks you have a failing hard drive. Good opportunity to upgrade to an SSD.

As I mentioned, a slow, spinning hard drive is not the best choice for either Mojave or Catalina. Not only do you have a 5400 RPM hard drive, it is failing. Double whammy.

Not only do you have a failing 5400 RPM hard drive, you only have 4GB of RAM. Triple whammy.

If you don't have a backup, you should make one now.

Apr 21, 2020 5:37 PM in response to Jones-Mac

A safe bet is something from Other World Computing. They have a very good reputation. I bought one of their mid-level models a few years ago. I can't remember the specs, but I used it to Make a Fusion drive with the Mini's HDD.

I also have purchased a SanDisk SSD in a 2010 MacBook Pro. It was very cheap, so I bought it to give it a try. Worked great.


Other than that, I don't have enough experience to recommend much. I always get whatever I think I can afford.

It's an eight-year old Mac, but I would bet it would continue to serve you well with an SSD.

Updated Mac Mini Later 2012 to Catalina OS X - Slow for over 2 weeks

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.