If you’re using an old Mac that’s been around for four to five years or more, you may have noticed that it’s slowing down. You might even be experiencing spinning wheels on almost everything, which can be frustrating and make you want to throw your computer off the balcony. Before you take such drastic measures, there’s good news: there’s an explanation for what you’re experiencing, and there’s a solution.
The spinning wheel of death is present because your hard drive is failing. The physical hard drive itself has moving parts inside that last for three to five years before they break down. This is why solid-state technology exists, which is the newer style of hard drive in the newer MacBook Pro Retina, etc. But if you’re using one of the older Macs, the hard drive can easily be replaced, and you can gain another three to four years of computer use out of your device for a fraction of the cost of a new computer.
Essentially, you’ll get a new computer with a clean install of your software, like therapy on steroids for your computer. It’s a double whammy because you get the best of both worlds from a hardware and software point of view, and you’ll be using your computer almost as good as it was when you first unwrapped it and brought it home from the Apple store years ago.
The symptoms that you should be familiar with or looking out for are real sluggishness on your computer and spinning wheels popping up. Whether they’re popping up all the time or occasionally, you can guarantee that your hard drive is failing. Obviously, the more wheels you see and the slower the lag, the more serious the failure is or the more imminent the failure is.
It’s important to note that if you have a computer that’s even in perfect health, if you haven’t got a backup in place, please do that immediately. It’s the first thing that should be done with all clients because it’s absolutely paramount to protect your data at all times, but even more so if you’re running an old computer. Your hard drive is on the verge of failure, and you might not even realize it. If that hard drive dies, and you don’t have a backup in place, you lose all your family photos, your baby photos, your wedding photos, your music, your business, your documents, everything.
There’s no reason why you should have to suffer through that pain for the sake of setting up an external hard drive or a time capsule to backup your data. If you need help with that or you’re suffering from the symptoms discussed, please tune in later on this afternoon. The speaker will actually be repairing one of his clients’ computers that has a failing hard drive, transferring the data to the new drive as he speaks. When that’s ready to go, he’ll be opening up the old computer and putting the new one in. He’ll show you a before and after of how you can expect your performance to improve with a new hard drive. While it’s hands down the best thing to do if you’ve got an older Mac, it’s important to remember to backup your data before it’s too late.