My seven-year-old Mac Mini has been running slower and slower of late. It had got to the point of making me wait just too long. Hanging and freezing is not a way I like to work. I didn’t think there was anything seriously wrong with the hardware (save that it’s rather old and somewhat slower than the new generation of these little boxes).
Anyway, On Saturday morning, I took the plunge. I already have most of my data on an external drive, so I can keep the 1TB fusion drive relatively free for the swapping that this only having 8GB of RAM demands these days. Oh, I remember when 8GB of RAM was the stuff of dreams, and not that long ago either!
I also have another 4GB external drive for Time Machine. On top of that, I use Backblaze for my remote backup solution. All in all, if something did go wrong with this exercise, I would still have the documents, diary entries, photographs and videos that I’ve amassed over the past couple of decades.
I did a final check for anything I might need in the future that was lurking in a corner. I had a few things on the desktop, so I moved them off and rebooted in recovery mode.
So far, so good, as I had not yet deleted anything. Then I started the process, erased the internal drive, and everything was gone. Then I re-installed the OS, in this case, Monterey.
That was relatively quick, but now came the primary choice. Do I individually download and install each program, or do I restore from Time Machine? I wimped out, and I did the latter. I was surprised that it took several hours. That gave me time to get off my butt and do a few overdue tasks around the house!
Eventually, Time Machine did its job, and the system was ready to use. I’ve had to wait several times as I fire up software for the system to verify it, but that’s a one-off. It’s certainly made a difference, and it’s given the old box a new lease of life. Everything is running smoothly again, and I’m not freezing unless I open the windows!
I intend to get one of the new M1 powered Mac Minis later in the year, but this has been a cheap, quick fix for now. It was much less painless than I thought it might be, and I’d certainly recommend it if your old machine is moving like a snail.