iM 4,1-14,4 My iMac is failing on me. Any idea what it could be?

[bobright]

So it started today whenever I try to turn my iMac on it’s extremely slow to load up. It loads up just my dock and all my folders on my desktop and the top menu bar where you can force quit things etc it’s completely gone. The arrow moves but that’s about it. I can go to the top right corner with my cursor and put it to sleep and awake but that’s about it. I have an open iTunes, iMessage and safari but I can’t click them or even force quit them because the tool bar up top is completely gone. Any idea how to get the top toolbar back?

I can also hear in the back of my Mac like a clicking sound/feint beep. Is that a failing hard drive? I end up having to just hold the power button until it shuts down...then restart it in hopes of it loading up correctly. Is there anyway to trouble shoot some type of safe mode so I can at least log in and back up some stuff?

Hopefully most of the stuff on it is backed up. I have it saved on a bootable hard drive which app it was but it lets me clone the entire Mac. My last backup was about a year ago or maybe more but I don’t really use it much nowadays, just for music so hopefully most of it I’ve got saved. I will say my iTunes library is my baby it’s organized and massive. Would be a bummer to lose it and have to try and salvage it.

If I do have to take it in is there any way to at least log out of my iTunes account through apples website?

It’s older believe around 2009 when I got it so this was bound to happen. I just checked in my apple account through my phone I’m on macOS 10.13.6.

Any help to try and bring this thing to life would be appreciated. As I said it turns on and lets me login but all it loads is the dock. It loaded up my folders one time but when I try to open anything I just get the beach ball and it’s instantly stuck. Smh

 

[Juicy Box]

Is that a failing hard drive?

Probably.

Do you have an external drive to use as a boot drive?

This could be helpful for trouble shooting, or just to use instead of your internal drive.

If your iMac is from 2009, it only has USB2.1, but an SSD over USB2 would probably have a lot better experience than your super old HDD, even if it wasn't failing.

SATA SSDs are super cheap now, too.

 

[Juicy Box]

So it started today whenever I try to turn my iMac on it’s extremely slow to load up. It loads up just my dock and all my folders on my desktop and the top menu bar where you can force quit things etc it’s completely gone. The arrow moves but that’s about it. I can go to the top right corner with my cursor and put it to sleep and awake but that’s about it. I have an open iTunes, iMessage and safari but I can’t click them or even force quit them because the tool bar up top is completely gone. Any idea how to get the top toolbar back?

It could be something else, but it sounds like the boot drive is failing and/or corrupted. I have seen similar things with a failing HDD in a Fusion Drive.

Not just slow boots, no boots, crashing apps, etc. but other weird stuff would happen. I remember one of the things was that certain options under the menu bar in iTunes was missing, and should have been there. Opening apps would sometimes take forever, or never happen. The "bounce" would happen for a while, then just stop.

I would try to install a fresh OS on an external drive. If you don't have an external SSD, or even a HDD, you can also use thumb drives or SD Cards, just to test to see how things run. If it runs okay, then the OS on the internal HDD most likely got corrupted, probably from it starting to fail.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Hopefully most of the stuff on it is backed up. I have it saved on a bootable hard drive which app it was but it lets me clone the entire Mac. My last backup was about a year ago or maybe more but I don’t really use it much nowadays, just for music so hopefully most of it I’ve got saved"

Try this:
Power down, all the way off.

Connect the backup drive.

Hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN as you press the power on button.
KEEP HOLDING THE OPTION KEY DOWN until the startup manager appears.

Do you see the external backup in startup manager?
If so, click on it with the pointer and hit return.

Does the Mac boot this way?
If it does, it's still usable for the time being.
I've run Macs for YEARS just booting and running from an external drive.

After 14 years, the internal platter-based hard drive may be failing.
When they start to fail, you might hear faint "clicking" sounds (seems you reported that above).

But you have to face up to it:
A 14-year-old iMac is no longer worth fixing.

Time to start shopping for something new, or perhaps Apple-refurbished.

The only iMac currently sold new is the 24" m1.
It's been out for a while, however.
If you get one of these, get the one with FOUR ports on the back and ethernet built into the power supply.
DO NOT buy the one with only TWO ports.
I'd recommend at least a 512gb SSD.

You might also consider the m2 Mini (or even the M2pro Mini).
A Mini with a 27" 4k display is a very nice setup.

Again, try connecting and booting from the backup first...

 

[JamesMay82]

We had all the same symptoms and it was the hard drive. We paid for a SSD drive to be installed by our local computer place for like £130 I think it was and its as good as new. if you want to keep it going it worth doing.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Above advice is sound. It prob is dying drive. Either the external drive (taking over as boot drive) or paying a local shop to put in a new drive (I agree with entropyfl in terms of switching to a fast SSD vs. HDD if you go this way) are good options.

Else, it's an OLD Mac, far beyond OS and security support. Another option is to replace it. A jump from 2009 tech to 2023 tech would be dramatic in terms of power, speed, utility, software functionality, modern updates, sync with iDevices, etc.

If money is tight, I agree with Fishrrman on the suggestion of paring a refurb M2 Mini with a good-sized (not Apple profit-priced) monitor. OR, maybe that 2009 iMac has Target Display Mode? If it does, it may be able to continue to be used as a monitor for a new Mac. Do some research.

 

[ignatius345]

If I do have to take it in is there any way to at least log out of my iTunes account through apples website?

I don't think so, but it doesn't really matter. You get a few iTunes/Music activations, and if you run out there's a way from a new Mac to just end all other authorizations and start fresh.

Obviously do what you can to recover your iTunes library, but you might end up rebuilding it from that 1 year old backup ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Hughmac]

Hard drive failure

By the way, this is the Early Intel Macs forum where we try to help keep these old and venerable machines running - "Go and buy a new one" doesn't really help.

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

@bobright, Here is the fixit guide for late 2009 iMacs. A new 128, 256 or 512gb SSD would be a cheap fix with the guide & some of your time + you'd see a nice bump in responsiveness vs the old spinner. You can restore the new drive from your backup. Plug it in via external usb hdd enclosure, power up the mac holding cmd+r and then select restore from Time machine (apple backups) when prompted. Best of luck to you.

 

[bobright]

"Hopefully most of the stuff on it is backed up. I have it saved on a bootable hard drive which app it was but it lets me clone the entire Mac. My last backup was about a year ago or maybe more but I don’t really use it much nowadays, just for music so hopefully most of it I’ve got saved"

Try this:
Power down, all the way off.

Connect the backup drive.

Hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN as you press the power on button.
KEEP HOLDING THE OPTION KEY DOWN until the startup manager appears.

Do you see the external backup in startup manager?
If so, click on it with the pointer and hit return.

Does the Mac boot this way?
If it does, it's still usable for the time being.
I've run Macs for YEARS just booting and running from an external drive.

After 14 years, the internal platter-based hard drive may be failing.
When they start to fail, you might hear faint "clicking" sounds (seems you reported that above).

But you have to face up to it:
A 14-year-old iMac is no longer worth fixing.

Time to start shopping for something new, or perhaps Apple-refurbished.

The only iMac currently sold new is the 24" m1.
It's been out for a while, however.
If you get one of these, get the one with FOUR ports on the back and ethernet built into the power supply.
DO NOT buy the one with only TWO ports.
I'd recommend at least a 512gb SSD.

You might also consider the m2 Mini (or even the M2pro Mini).
A Mini with a 27" 4k display is a very nice setup.

Again, try connecting and booting from the backup first...

Wow, so my bad for the super late response. I tried what you and others said when I made this topic and my wireless keyboard wouldn’t even connect for me to try booting from a clone with Option pressed. I was so fed up and at my wits end and just gave up. LOL. I didn’t have the energy to respond or anything was just sick.

Anyways fast forward to now I randomly tried the external boot up option again before recycling this piece of junk and guess what? It actually worked. It booted up from my CCC backup clone and it’s running perfectly fine. iTunes library, browsing the web etc.. everything works fine. So what does this mean that it’s a failed hard drive? Could it just be corrupted and a fresh Mac OS install could fix it?

I noticed when I booted from the CCC clone it actually asked me if I wanted to restore this backup onto the Mac itself something to that effect. Should I try that option? I have nothing to lose right?

Edit: when booting up from the external hdd there was a third drive that said recovery perhaps try that?

Appreciate any help

 

[bobright]

Above advice is sound. It prob is dying drive. Either the external drive (taking over as boot drive) or paying a local shop to put in a new drive (I agree with entropyfl in terms of switching to a fast SSD vs. HDD if you go this way) are good options.

Else, it's an OLD Mac, far beyond OS and security support. Another option is to replace it. A jump from 2009 tech to 2023 tech would be dramatic in terms of power, speed, utility, software functionality, modern updates, sync with iDevices, etc.

If money is tight, I agree with Fishrrman on the suggestion of paring a refurb M2 Mini with a good-sized (not Apple profit-priced) monitor. OR, maybe that 2009 iMac has Target Display Mode? If it does, it may be able to continue to be used as a monitor for a new Mac. Do some research.

See my most recent post for why I responded so late to this thread. Lol. But yea it actually booted up from a clone. I was looking at my options on purchasing something new before trying the boot up option one more time. Now I don’t know if I should just get a Mac mini or still get a new iMac or what. It works as a monitor though at least right now. Idk if I shut it down and restart it’ll work again but so far it worked from the clone.

 

[bobright]

It could be something else, but it sounds like the boot drive is failing and/or corrupted. I have seen similar things with a failing HDD in a Fusion Drive.

Not just slow boots, no boots, crashing apps, etc. but other weird stuff would happen. I remember one of the things was that certain options under the menu bar in iTunes was missing, and should have been there. Opening apps would sometimes take forever, or never happen. The "bounce" would happen for a while, then just stop.

I would try to install a fresh OS on an external drive. If you don't have an external SSD, or even a HDD, you can also use thumb drives or SD Cards, just to test to see how things run. If it runs okay, then the OS on the internal HDD most likely got corrupted, probably from it starting to fail.

See my recent posts I was actually able to boot it up from a clone. The clone asked me if I wanted to restore to the main drive I guess? Should I try that option, perhaps it’s corrupted and if I restore from the clone it’ll work again?

I’m thinking it won’t work and declined the option but idk if I should try it?

Also when booting up from the external hdd using Option there was a third drive that said recovery perhaps try that?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

See my recent posts I was actually able to boot it up from a clone. The clone asked me if I wanted to restore to the main drive I guess? Should I try that option, perhaps it’s corrupted and if I restore from the clone it’ll work again?

I’m thinking it won’t work and declined the option but idk if I should try it?

Also when booting up from the external hdd using Option there was a third drive that said recovery perhaps try that?

No you should not try any option you have just thought of above.
Just boot from the external disk, try to save as much personal files as possible before dismounting the failing internal drive, and wiping it clean.

 

[bobright]

No you should not try any option you have just thought of above.
Just boot from the external disk, try to save as much personal files as possible before dismounting the failing internal drive, and wiping it clean.

How do I save what I can from the main drive while booted up on my external drive?

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

How do I save what I can from the main drive while booted up on my external drive?

Can't you see your main drive? If you can't, then it's a very big problem with you.

 

[bobright]

Can't you see your main drive? If you can't, then it's a very big problem with you.

I do see it now. It randomly unmounts. You don’t have to be an ******* about it

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

I do see it now. It randomly unmounts. You don’t have to be an ******* about it

Missing words in my comments... corrected!!
Sorry for the misunderstanding.