iMac G5 Slooow Start-up

[arnolfo]

My iMac G5 has some kind of problem upon restart or boot up. It takes over 5 minutes to do either. It clears the grey screen and sits on the blue screen for several minutes before entering the desktop.

I've run fsck twice to correct volume header problems. All was corrected.

I've run DU until no problems were shown. Ran both Repair Disk and Repair Permissions.

I've run Tech-Tool Pro 2x with no problems to report. (skipped surface scan)

I've run Disk Warrior and rebuilt the directory.

I've had this iMac since 2007 and it's run great since-however it now seems to be having a real hard time loading up into the osx 10.5.8. Should I be looking at mechanical problems...for instance, the memory?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[MisterMe]

Two questions:

• What is the capacity of your hard drive?
• How much free space to you have remaining?

[arnolfo]

MisterMe,

Thank you for responding. I've just come across a listing in one of Apple's forums that answers my question.

After running all of the procedures I listed, I unplugged my computer completely. Pulled the power cord out at both ends and let it sit for a few minutes. I then plugged it all back in and it rebooted normally. So, for now it seems normal.

To answer your question, I've got 24 gigs left on a 250 gig hd (233 actual). I'd say I'm pushing pretty close to full and will be cleaning off quite a bit soon.


Thanks again.

[MisterMe]

... I've got 24 gigs left on a 250 gig hd (233 actual). I'd say I'm pushing pretty close to full and will be cleaning off quite a bit soon.


Thanks again.

OK. You are under the 10% threshold of available free space on your hard drive. The Mac's UNIX virtual memory system needs headroom to work properly. When you slip below the 10% threshold, you can expect degraded performance.

You need to archive a significant fraction of your 200+ GB files. 1.0+ TB FireWire external hard drives are reasonably priced. Get one.