Old but wonderful,,,,,,,,

[jcarter]

My wonderful 9 year old 27 inch Mac which everybody uses in the kitchen is slowing down, and the mouse just failed. Ive got on old mouse plugged in. My husband wants me to replace it with a new 27 inch one.  But I have some apps and software which wont probably work.
Should I do it? 
I have another 9 year old 27 inch one in my office which works OK, but is also slowing down too. However I use it only for easy stuff, and it has more than 10,000 pictures on it which I use a lot.
I dont really want to buy 2 new Macs, but these are getting old and slow. The kids get frustrated with the kitchen one,,,,
Do I NEED to buy new ones?
I try to explain to our grandkids that there is a difference in Need and Want,,,,,,,,,,,

[jchuzi]

Before you take the plunge, let's see if we can diagnose why your computer has slowed down. Your backup drive appears to be fairly full, but that should not be the reason. You appear to have plenty of RAM. Have you tried running Disk Utility or similar to run diagnostics and/or repairs?

All things considered, it is very unlikely that age, alone, is the culprit.

[jwboyd]

Hey, Jon, you're probably right that age alone shouldn't slow a computer down.

But I can tell you from personal experience that in some circumstances age will indeed slow things down. (I'm 89!)

[jcarter]

Im almost 78, and Im slowing down too. But we sure took the dogs to the beach today.

OK, I will run Disk Utility, and see if that tells us anything.
I know that we push this old Mac, run lots of stuff on it, and the kids ran both videos of their rafting trips and also a video of a complete soccar game all simultaneously.

[jcarter]

Here is the other one which I dont run videos and fun stuff on very much, its only about 6 years old.
I dont let the kids or grandkids use this one very much.
Its running fine. Not as fast as my husband's new one, but not any complaints at all.

[Xairbusdriver]

Might help to run Disk Warrior to clean up/reorganize the disk directory. Inefficient ordering of resource files can greatly affect perceived and actual speed.

You should also be able to find 1 or 2 year old iMacs for a lot less than new ones and many will/should have Mojave or even High Sierra installed.

[jcarter]

Not worried about the cost,,,,,but here are the disk warrior results. I dont know what that extra one on top which said failed is.

[jcarter]

Taking dog out for walk, kids just left, we are exhausted, so I will shut this one off to rest, and turn it on early tomorrow morning.
THANK YOU!

[jcarter]

Back, I realize now that its the hard drive, so I guess I better get to work on this tomorrow.

[Xairbusdriver]

Disk Utility is probably the least usable "utility" around.   DW is much better at correcting problems that DU claims are un-fixable.

[jchuzi]

The problem with Disk Warrior is that it does not work on APFS. Alsoft has been stymied in its further development because they have not received the entire codes from Apple, which is apparently dragging its feet. That's an issue for me with Mojave (and ultimately Catalina) because I can't use DW except on my clones, which are HFS+.

OTOH, I have used Disk Utility to fix a problem with my boot drive (APFS) and it worked fine. In addition, now DU can repair the boot drive without having to boot into Recovery Mode. TechToolPro claims that it can repair APFS volumes but I have not tested it.

[jcarter]

This computer is working just absolutely fine this morning.
But Should I buy Disk Warrior and do that before it fails?
Ive never had to  use it, but will read the instructions on their page carefully.
I do have a back up 1TB Seagate which is always up to date for my stuff.
Its my pictures I am worried about, but I do have almost all of them on iCloud, Flickr, and other sites.

Or as my husband is pushing me to do, just go out and buy a brand new Mac like this one, and stop worriying.
I wont do anything obviously, until I have your instructions.

Using an old fashioned mouse is very odd, but the good one wont stay connected.

[jwboyd]

All of my drives are APFS, and TechTool Pro 11 works fine.

[jcarter]

http://www.macintosh-data-recovery.com/blog/top-5-mac-hard-disk-drive-repair-software/

I saw this?

[jcarter]

But if this is true, cannot be repaired, then this means I cant use any of these repair softwares?
I have to either buy a replacement HD, or a new Mac.
But if its 10 years old,,,,,,,a new shiny one might be nice? As this kitchen one is on all the time and the entire family uses it.