1st off ty for reading this. I have a client (80yo) with an imac from 2016. Its very slow and bogged down with backblaze and time machine. He originally had 6 seagate external hard drives and I put them into an enclosure, but has not really alleviated the sluggishnish of the computer. We've contacted mac support and they had him shut down a bunch of running processes in the background but he keeps on restarting them eventually. i have entertained a new imac, hackintosh and a server but I don't know what the solution is to his woe's. Unfortunately, I just don't know macs enough to help him. I know for certain he needs an updated imac, his current machine was upgraded a few years ago to a ssd and 32 (I think) of ram. Might have been 16g. The drive enclosure has 2ea tm 4gb, and 2ea 8gb full of data from his teaching days and envolvement in the historical society. I feel a server might be the best route but will a poweredge do what he needs? I am honestly lost on this. Thanks in advance
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What to do with all this Data, Please help or Suggest
- Thread starter howardgnx
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You can check memory/RAM load and CPU/GPU loads through utility monitor (an app you can open multiple ways; it will depend on which macOS version he’s running: click on the apple logo in the top left corner to find the version). If you’re up for it, my favourite app to do that is iStat Mini ($10 on the App Store +/-) where you can check all the stats easily (for lazy folk like myself). When you see what the loads are you can make a great judgement of what future needs will be.
Sounds like he does have relatively odd requirements and RAM might be a bottleneck, even if (despite what many posters on this forum claim) Apple Silicon Macs (all Macs sold today) use RAM much differently and more efficiently than the usual WinPC and Intel Macs do.
As to your data server idea: do you mean those are actually GB size drives or data amounts? It’s a bit confusing. I’m going to assume you mean TB and that, in total, he has 24TB of drives, likely in a JBOD setup (each drive acts independently). Please correct me if I’m wrong. I have a NAS serving files that works great (up to 1Gb/s speeds exceed my needs, except when transferring a large amount of data [which is not often]) including streaming my own movie and music collections.
If the NAS is a step too far, there are a ton of RAID enclosures at reasonable prices available (I use the NAS because I can hide the noise of HDDs in a closet where it doesn’t annoy me. It would on my desktop…)
Feel free to ask me anything in this domain, I have a bit of experience. Far from an expert, though!
Sounds like he does have relatively odd requirements and RAM might be a bottleneck, even if (despite what many posters on this forum claim) Apple Silicon Macs (all Macs sold today) use RAM much differently and more efficiently than the usual WinPC and Intel Macs do.
As to your data server idea: do you mean those are actually GB size drives or data amounts? It’s a bit confusing. I’m going to assume you mean TB and that, in total, he has 24TB of drives, likely in a JBOD setup (each drive acts independently). Please correct me if I’m wrong. I have a NAS serving files that works great (up to 1Gb/s speeds exceed my needs, except when transferring a large amount of data [which is not often]) including streaming my own movie and music collections.
If the NAS is a step too far, there are a ton of RAID enclosures at reasonable prices available (I use the NAS because I can hide the noise of HDDs in a closet where it doesn’t annoy me. It would on my desktop…)
Feel free to ask me anything in this domain, I have a bit of experience. Far from an expert, though!
It's only me, but I would suggest the below solution (might take some weeks to migrate the data)
1. Build a 20TB or 24TB NAS with RAID 1 (Sysnology, Qnap, DIY NAS etc). You will need 2x20TB HDD or 2x24TB HDDs.
2. Migrate all documents to the NAS.
3. Move all of his personal data to the NAS.
4. Remove all external drives.
5. Plug in an external SSD about 1 or 2TB and do a clean install of Mac OS.
6. Restore from the time machine his personal set-up and applications (no data, to save time)
7. Dismount/disable the internal drive. Use only the external drive to boot Mac OS
8. Build a new Time Machine with the new Mac OS.
9. Set a plan for the user to store data only to the NAS, and external SSD only store Mac OS and applications.
10. Upgrade RAM if necessary.
After the system has run stable and confirming that all data has been stored on the NAS, unplug the old external drives and store away, or format and use them as offline back-up.
You could spend a lot of time and effort to continue to diagnose a 9 year old computer and maybe get another couple of years with effort… or you donate it to a school and buy a new Apple silicon Mac and a synology nas. I say nas because it has some extra safety with a redundant drive built in. That’s a lot of files, Time Machine can’t be backing them all up.
With those specs the M3 iMac would do just fine. You get a larger, nicer screen, substantially more capable CPU and GPU, and can take RAM to 24GB. All leagues better than the present model he has. If you want to take it up a notch, grab an M2Pro version of the Mac mini with 32GB RAM and a nice external monitor. That way if it needs replacing down the line (may he live well, forever) you can pop out the mini for a newer model…Thank you all for the reply's, I was able to get the specs yesterday and have included them here.![thumbnail]()
One note: the iMac only has USB-C/Thunderbolt connections (either 2 Thunderbolt 3 or 2 Thunderbolt 3 and 2 USB) and an Ethernet port available (optional, 1 Gb) on the power brick. The mini with Pro chip has 4 Thunderbolt USB-C, 2 USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and an Ethernet port (optional 10Gb).
Still need to figure out the external drives situation, though…
Thanks to all of you very much. Yeah, I agree that a 9yo mac is going to be a waste of time. I think the mac mini would be the direction I would like to point him towards. I like the M2 and the 32g ram. I have no idea on what a monitor would look like but I think a cheap 1 from even walmart would probably suffice. Any thoughts?
A 2015 quad-core with and SSD and 16 GB RAM has no business being "slow and bogged down". This also has nothing to do with the number or size of HDDs connected.
" I think a cheap 1 from even walmart would probably suffice. Any thoughts?"
For an older person (with older eyes), I'd suggest a lower-cost 27" 4k display.
The clear text will help out...
For an older person (with older eyes), I'd suggest a lower-cost 27" 4k display.
The clear text will help out...
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I'm with Fishrrman on this... except maybe even encouraging something towards 32" or larger.
If you opt for new Mac, Mac Mini should do the job. If costs are a big deal, refurb Mac Mini.
And I'm with #4 on that Synology NAS setup for big storage... though I'd probably just use the Synology SHR option vs. RAID 1 as it does redundancy backups just fine. Maybe set it up with 2 drive backups (SHR-2) for maximum peace of mind, though that involves buying a few more drives and at least a 4-bay NAS.
It would also be a very good idea to regularly backup all new files to an external drive(s) that is stored offsite, so that the fire/flood/theft scenario that could take out the Mac and the NAS would still have an easy recovery remedy. No offsite backup pretty up to date is just asking for trouble in those scenarios.
Lastly, perhaps a good conversation would reveal that having all of the data on hand at all times is not important to the user. Perhaps they really only need a small subset of all of it available regularly? If so, if they can easily identify what they need readily available, perhaps store that on internal storage (backed up with Time Machine or similar) and then the less important big data backed up on a big external drive.
In other words, if the mass of data is basically life-long data hoarding and much of it is never touched, perhaps much of it doesn't need to be immediately accessible... just accessible. Store it like storing photo albums on a shelf that user can fetch and plug in to access should the need arrive. None of us tend to need immediate access to every bit of data we've ever accumulated. Segregating the "clutter" may be a good option here too.
If you opt for new Mac, Mac Mini should do the job. If costs are a big deal, refurb Mac Mini.
And I'm with #4 on that Synology NAS setup for big storage... though I'd probably just use the Synology SHR option vs. RAID 1 as it does redundancy backups just fine. Maybe set it up with 2 drive backups (SHR-2) for maximum peace of mind, though that involves buying a few more drives and at least a 4-bay NAS.
It would also be a very good idea to regularly backup all new files to an external drive(s) that is stored offsite, so that the fire/flood/theft scenario that could take out the Mac and the NAS would still have an easy recovery remedy. No offsite backup pretty up to date is just asking for trouble in those scenarios.
Lastly, perhaps a good conversation would reveal that having all of the data on hand at all times is not important to the user. Perhaps they really only need a small subset of all of it available regularly? If so, if they can easily identify what they need readily available, perhaps store that on internal storage (backed up with Time Machine or similar) and then the less important big data backed up on a big external drive.
In other words, if the mass of data is basically life-long data hoarding and much of it is never touched, perhaps much of it doesn't need to be immediately accessible... just accessible. Store it like storing photo albums on a shelf that user can fetch and plug in to access should the need arrive. None of us tend to need immediate access to every bit of data we've ever accumulated. Segregating the "clutter" may be a good option here too.
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My fully loaded 2014 5K iMac was noticeably slowing by the time I replaced it with the M1Max MBPro. There are many factors at play and use case impacts these things quite heavily.
M2Pro model has 32GB RAM, M2 maxes out at 24GB. As Fishrrman states, a 27” 4K monitor ought to be a sweet spot, especially coming from a 21.5” although I didn’t ask whether his model was the 4K iMac, as that might change things for him…
Hobe wrote:
"Lastly, perhaps a good conversation would reveal that having all of the data on hand at all times is not important to the user. Perhaps they really only need a small subset of all of it available regularly?"
I'd agree.
At age 80, does he really, REALLY have a need for all this data any longer?
"Lastly, perhaps a good conversation would reveal that having all of the data on hand at all times is not important to the user. Perhaps they really only need a small subset of all of it available regularly?"
I'd agree.
At age 80, does he really, REALLY have a need for all this data any longer?
