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Model A1419 / Late 2013 / 3.2 & 3.4 GHz Core i5 or 3.5 GHz Core i7 Processor, ID iMac14,2

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Symptom of drive failure? (Fusion drive, iMac)

Hello.

I have a late 2013 27” iMac - 14,2 - 3.5GHz - … EMC is 2639 … 3TB internal fusion drive.

The overall system performance when using this internal drive as the startup is very bad.

However, duplicating a large file (like 100GB) on this internal drive to itself seems pretty fast.

But, copying that same file to a decent external drive is incredibly slow (the finder says it will take ~3 days to copy that 100GB file to an external drive). Is that still symptomatic of a failing drive itself, or something else in the file system/file hardware?

(I wouldn’t want to install a new SSD drive, only to have the problem be something else.)

Thanks.

-Allan

Update (12/11/2018)

From the system report, here's the INTERNAL Apple drive:

Available: 1.47 TB (1,469,475,217,408 bytes)

Capacity: 3.12 TB (3,121,506,295,808 bytes)

Mount Point: /Volumes/Macintosh HD

  • File System: APFS
  • Writable: Yes
  • Ignore Ownership: No
  • BSD Name: disk2s1
  • Volume UUID: FBDF963E-B821-3C1A-9039-4032684E3CF3

Physical Drive:

Device Name: APPLE SSD SD0128F

  • Media Name: AppleAPFSMedia
  • Medium Type: SSD
  • Protocol: PCI
  • Internal: Yes
  • Partition Map Type: Unknown
  • S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified

...and here's the EXTERNAL LaCie:

Available: 3.91 TB (3,906,058,018,816 bytes)

Capacity: 4 TB (4,000,577,273,856 bytes)

Mount Point: /

  • File System: APFS
  • Writable: Yes
  • Ignore Ownership: No
  • BSD Name: disk4s1
  • Volume UUID: 4E6B39CB-90B3-3448-ABBB-1CA5A9FE4959

Physical Drive:

Device Name: Rugged USB-C

  • Media Name: AppleAPFSMedia
  • Protocol: USB
  • Internal: No
  • Partition Map Type: Unknown
Answer this question I have this problem too

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4 Comments

Are both drives Apple original? Have you upgraded to High Sierra or Mojave and did this slow down occur after that? Do you have Microsoft Office 2011 installed?

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The internal is Apple original. I've tried two of the orange LaCie externals (usb and thunderbolt, both the same performance when copying). OS is High Sierra, but it had been working well for quite a while with High Sierra. Office 365 installed.

About 4 days ago, the performance all of a sudden became quite bad. That said, over the past year, I've been beachball-ing more and more.

With the LaCie external set as the startup disk, the system performs well.

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Are both internal drives Apple originals?

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There is only one internal drive (Apple original). Duplicating a file to the same drive seemed to be fast. But copying from the internal to an external is the thing that's super slow.

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Most Helpful Answer

OK, if you have a fusion drive internally, that consists of an SSD blade and a standard hard drive. Open disk Utilities to see exactly what drives you do have. Just to verify, are the both drives original Mac equipment? If so, I suspect your internal stand drive may be failing. If not Apple original we are dealing with a whole new ball game. Also, please tell me which drive is designated as the start up drive in about this Mac.

UPDATE

This is the composition of a Fusion Drive

iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 Blade SSD Replacement

iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 Hard Drive Replacement

How to Break a Fusion Drive: https://www.macworld.com/article/2015664...

iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 Hard Drive Replacement Image

Guide

iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 Hard Drive Replacement

Difficulty:

Moderate

30 minutes - 2 hours

iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 Blade SSD Image

Guide

iMac Intel 27" EMC 2639 Blade SSD Replacement

Difficulty:

Difficult

1 - 3 hours

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2 Comments:

Hi. Thanks for your assistance. I think the LaCie external drive is behaving fine. The internal Fusion drive -- which is the original drive -- is the one that is behaving badly.

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You do now understand that a fusion drive is a combination of two drive that are married? Usually this is a small SSD blade drive and a standard 3.5" or 2.5" SATA drive.

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lagouyn will be eternally grateful.
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