I’m using a 2010 MacBook that has an SSD and upgraded to 8GB of ram. My friend seems to think that SSD’s perform worse under increased loads so offloading stuff to an external drive should help. Thoughts? Disk utility last time I checked didn’t show anything, I’ll run it again though.
Edit: Attached are some screenshots. It’s weird that the SSD has a “container” or whatnot that shows it nearly full while the HD itself shows 50+gb available. Also shown is the error I get when I run first aid.
I don’t think the SSD being full will cause restarts. I’d look into the fan/heat and faulty memory first. That said, you do want a bit of free space on the drive. You didn’t say how full it is, but having at least 20 gigs free is the rule of thumb I use.
Yeah I have at least 20gb free. My fans do run loud, how would I check the heat and fans? I’d imagine not much would be able to be done about it given my computer is 8 years old…
You could try iStat Menus to check the temperatures of things.
It may be full of lint/dust and need cleaning out.
Are you using it on a hard surface so the fans can breath, or on something like a blanket that could block the ventilation?
Hmm, great idea. Yeah I typically have my computer on my desk though it has a pad thing that it does on top of. A good cleaning would probably help as well.
Hi, so I’ll be getting a new computer come August or September. I hope by doing so would eliminate my issues. Should I clone my current disk or do a full clean install?
Depends on how much set-up time is involved. Dealing with clone is faster. Clean install + Migration Assistant is recommended if you’ve had system problems in the past, as old system cruft could be passed along to the new machine. Good overview of the decisions involved here:
Maybe I’ll do a clean instal when I have a break from work and just clone it to use a working system.
Ordering a new Mac in the next day or so. Currently running El Capitan. My new Mac I think should be running Mojave (did I screw up and flip which OS version name)? Would I downgrade my new Mac to the same operating system as my current Mac and then use Migration assistant?
No, just use Mojave to suck up your previous OS’s files. Shouldn’t be a problem. Migration Assistant will grab the files, not the OS.
Sounds great will do!
Seconding this. Migration Assistant is magical.
Will do. My sister is getting a new laptop as well. My dad wants her to take it to the Apple Store to have stuff migrated and wipe her old computer. Won’t she be sitting for a while it transfers or do so overnight?
Honestly there’s no need for the Apple store to do it, as you set up the new machine it will offer to let you transfer data from the old machine, leave them plugged in next to each other, go watch a film/entertain yourselves and check back after 
Data Migration at an Apple store is not a “while you wait” service. Most stores quote a 24-48 hour window for this free service. Apple used to charge $99US but just changed that a few months ago.
With the correct cables, one can perform the Migration fairly easy. AppleCare can lend support should questions arise. Only other advice is “Don’t migrate wirelessly” as it usually fails at 98% but YMMV.
That was my thought as well. I’ll suggest it to my dad and hopefully he’s down with it. Otherwise she won’t be able to get used to her new Mac for a few days.
My dad I quote “but if her computer is having issues how do you expect the transfer to go ok? What if you brick the computer”. I think what I’ll do is take a spare external hard drive, start just a simple copy her HD to my external. If it takes more then one or two tries that’s fine. She doesn’t have cloning software though I suppose I could also download a trial of CarbonCopyCloner. Granted by being the family tech support person if anything goes wrong I get blamed. I’ll have a Apple appointment as a precaution for the following day.
The simplest way is not to get cables for a Mac to Mac connection, but to use one’s backup drive (everyone has one, right?) after doing one last backup, since everyone has that cable.
That’s my plan. That will be my plan for doing so on my sister’s device as well. Should I just have her download a free trial of CCC or Super Duper to then boot from and run migration assistant?
People who have and use backup HD’s have the advantage of a simple Migration. As Jonathan mentioned… it seems like his sister doesn’t have one already. But he is going to try and create one for her. I would suggest a Time Machine backup as a good solution.
Most customers needing Apple to Migrate their data do not have a backup HD. They have the (false) belief that losing data won’t happen to them. My favorite comment is “I bought a HD a few weeks ago, but haven’t had the time to use it” followed by tears when the realization sets in.
