Laptop clean-up

[KimBM]

Hello, I have an old MacBook Pro and haven’t been very disciplined saving files and keeping it organised.  It runs very slow.  Is there an easy way to tidy it up and back-up the data?  I think I have all my photos saved to hard drives, but not sure if there is a painless way to check?

I have small kids so don’t spend the time I’d like on editing at this point.  I’d love to upgrade my laptop, but don’t think it’s a sensible option until I have more time to use it.

[Brian]

20 hours ago, KimBM said:

Hello, I have an old MacBook Pro and haven’t been very disciplined saving files and keeping it organised.

I will bet you that you have all sorts of crap on your Desktop, right? If so, the more stuff you have on your desktop, the slower it runs. Give this Article a read.

Speaking of speed/performance, the more crap you have on ANY HD, Internal or External, the slower it runs. When it comes to a Macintosh Computer, you never want to go more than 75%-80% Full on any hard drive. If you do, performance takes a hit. If your HD is more than 95% full, then you are in dangerous territory of things completely crashing. So before we really begin, can you fill out this form and post the results here in this thread?

Details about your Computer's Health

[KimBM]

Hi Brian, sorry for the super slow response - below is the message when I did the health check.  Let me know if that doesn’t look right.

I have a Mac laptop running High Sierra and Photoshop 2020. It is over 8 years old, and has 16GB of RAM. Its hard drive has 16.9GB free out of 500.07GB. The last time I shut down was just before posting this thread. I have never run a cleanup program.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, KimBM said:

Its hard drive has 16.9GB free out of 500.07GB.

THIS IS VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY BAD!!!!!!

Once you get above 95% full on your main HD, you are at risk of Data Corruption, meaning I'm surprised it's booting at all. 

8 years is a good run for any computer. The 16GB of RAM is the bare-minimum in 2022 and I'd recommend that you go higher if you can. Honestly? It's time for a new one, and I just don't say that willingly. Sure, I'm very good at spending other people's money, but it really sucks to be in the market for a new computer right now. I can recommend purchasing CleanMyMac X from Macpaw.com to help with getting some storage space, but you really need to move lots of files to another drive. I want that 16.9GB closer to 300GB free. Seriously. I'm not kidding.

Any "Maintenance" that we do is just a Band-Aid. Start saving, you need a new computer.

Edit: Crap. It's a Mac Laptop. There really isn't much to upgrade after the fact when it comes to a Mac Laptop. Especially when things are soldered to the motherboard. It's still time for a new computer. No, I don't recommend Mac Laptops. Unless you want to spend around $4200, which is just nuts.

[KimBM]

I was a little afraid you would say that!  I will get the cleaning program you recommend.  In terms of an upgrade what do you recommend?  I want something that’s going to last around 5 years.

[Brian]

I personally don't like laptops, especially for photo-editing, but people are addicted/refuse to give them up and I got tired of arguing. There are several pinned articles in both the Windows and Mac Forums.

If you want something that is going to last 5+ years, expect to pay more than you are thinking. It's 2022!!! $4+ for a Gallon of Gas and there is still a chip-shortage. To top things off, you really need to read the fine-print on what you are buying. Yesterday's $500 Computers are today's $1500 models. Manufacturers have cut corners and cheaped out on offerings, so they can keep prices "low" and not be the Bad Guys. So you really-really-really need to look at the technical specifications.

If you are going to stay Mac, Apple is and has always been a "Go Big or Go Home" company. You will get penalized for choosing a cheaper model in terms of upgrades. Apple likes charging more for the same damn thing if you went with a lower priced Mac than if you just picked the more expensive option to begin with!!! Usually it's around $100 or so, give or take. For example, say you picked a $1999 27" iMac and upgraded the HD. That upgrade option will be $100 more than if you picked the more expensive $2399 model and chose the same exact HD Upgrade, which would be a $100 less with the more expensive model. Sneaky, eh? So in the long run, when it comes to Apple, you really aren't saving THAT MUCH by going with the cheaper option; it's almost always better to go with the most expensive option and fiddle with things. In the end, it only costs you about $100 or so more. And when you are talking $3000-$4000 for a computer, $100-ish is minuscule.