Mac keeps freezing, tried a lot of things, any ideas?

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Okay so here's my problem. My mac just keeps randomly freezing for no reason, you know? Spinning balls all across the board, Chrome refusing any input or giving me a white screen every time I change back to another tab. Random warnings that the shockwave plugin isn't working. More spinning balls while browsing the finder. Menu bar not taking any input either, etc. etc.

I've tried a whole lot of things. I reduced the amount of startup apps. I tried clearing out a whole bunch of different caches. Activity Monitor shows no apps causing any CPU spikes, although a bunch of apps do sometimes all give "Not Responding" messages at the same time.

Tried restarting the computer in Safe Mode, and although I didn't spend a lot of time in that mode, it appears the problem persists there as well. At least I got some slowdowns while browsing the finder.

Using the Disc Utility to Restore Disc several times, but just gives me "no problems found".

I'm at a loss here. What other options are left?

I don't know what sort of info you people need, but if you need to know anything, just ask. These problems have come up incidentally a few times in the past, but today it's been especially bad. I've opened minimal apps at this point in time, using only one tab in Chrome. But still every once in a while I get a complete freeze.

So again, if you need to know anything, just ask. It's becoming very frustrating.
 
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First of all, we need to know what specific OS you are using. Secondly, what specific Mac model do you have? Third, have you been making any backups? And, do you have an external drive? Fourth, have you been doing any "periodic" disk repair/maintenance on your machine? Along with that, do you have a more advanced/robust Disk Repair/Maintenance program like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro.

From what you are describing, it sounds like there are issues with your internal hard drive and/or the software there. Until you answer the above questions, it is difficult, at best, to help you with anything definitive.
 
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In the mean time, I made an EtreCheck, maybe that answers some of your questions.

I posted it here... https://discussions.apple.com/message/27869880#27869880
The iMac I'm using is this one https://support.apple.com/kb/SP665?locale=en_US
And I use the latest version of Yosemite.

I have not made any backups at all. My previous G5 lasted 10 years before it finally died, so I never really saw a need. I do have a 1TB USB drive lying around that's mostly empty. I never really thought about it. How does one go about making a backup? Surely I don't just drag and drop the entire contents of my HD onto a USB drive? I haven't done any maintenance in the 2 years since I owned the thing, so I don't think I have any super tools for that at all.

I hope this helps a little bit. At the very least thank you for your time. As it turns out, this machine is actually very important to me. I don't want it to die. :(
 
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You do have a rather "recent" machine, which is good. Also, no matter how long a machine lasts, and especially if you do not do any disk maintenance/repairs, nor keep software up to date, it is STILL critical to make a backup.

To make a backup, you need software to do that. As to which product to use, it depends upon your needs. Yosemite actually comes with Time Machine, which can make an initial backup, and then incremental ones (as ofter as you desire, depending on how you set that up). You could, for example, have the incremental backup run every day, more than once a day, every other day, etc. But, you can only (easily) recover individual files and/or folders from a Time Machine backup.

Myself, I don't use Time Machine, preferring to use SuperDuper!. That program actually make a a "clone" (backup) of one's entire system at that point in time. But, it is a bootable backup, which means one can do a complete restore from such a backup. There is a "free" version of it, but it runs somewhat slower than the paid version (only costs $27.95 (US)). Also, the paid version also allows one to do incremental backups. I actually upgraded to the paid version recently, but I do not need the incremental backups. I can also tell you for a fact that having such a bootable backup saved my "bacon" twice recently! (By the way, I run the backup once a week, along with performing 3 other Disk/Maintenance tasks, on both of my machines).

In any event, getting back to your current issues. I surmise that you do not have a more robust Disk maintenance/repair program. I would HIGHLY recommend that you get one, and Tech Tool Pro is both less expensive than Disk Warrior, and it can be run from your internal drive to do disk maintenance/repairs via its eDrive. So, boot back into the Recovery Partition, and when you see the menu, click on the Disk Utility option. Once you have Disk Utility launched, click on the TOP level name of your hard disk, and do a Verify and Repair Disk. Then, click on the next lowest level name of your primary boot partition (most likely, you have only one visible partition). Click on it, and do 1) Verify and Repair Permissions, and 2) Verify and Repair Disk.

Once you have completed that, restart your Mac (from the internal drive). Hopefully, that resolves just about all of your issues.

Also, make sure you have all the latest versions for EACH application you use. Additionally, see if the file "Install OS X Yosemite" is somewhere on your drive. "Usually" it is located in the Applications folder, and even if it is, I'd advise you to make another copy of it somewhere else on your internal drive.

Let us know what happens after all that. Also, if you want to try and use SuperDuper!, let me know, as there is something else you need to do when using that.
 
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As I write this, I am making a backup using Time Machine. After that I'm going to do some of the stuff you suggested as well as get rid of some applications this eperience has basically scared me into not wanting anymore. I'm really hoping I can fix this. If I manage to somehow fix it, I'll be sure to let you know.
 
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As I write this, I am making a backup using Time Machine. After that I'm going to do some of the stuff you suggested as well as get rid of some applications this eperience has basically scared me into not wanting anymore. I'm really hoping I can fix this. If I manage to somehow fix it, I'll be sure to let you know.

That's good you are making the backup, but remember that it is not yet a "clean one". So, after getting the machine back up and running smoothly, run Time Machine again to do a FULL backup.

Again, though, you cannot boot from a Time Machine backup, so any kind of recovery will be piece meal, at best. Fro that reason, that is why I much prefer a SuperDuper! backup. If I've got a problem, I can boot from that clean backup, use Disk Utility from there to 1) Erase and Format my internal drive (SSD in my case), 2) do complete restore from that backup to the SSD, an d3) reboot my machine. I'm back in business quickly!
 
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Question: If I completely clone a corrupted hard drive... wouldn't the clone be corrupted as well?
 
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Well, after doing a lot of things, the problem still hasn't been solved. The conclusion is that it's very likely that the hard drive itself is malfunctioning. So I sent my iMac away for maintenance. I'm going to have to survive on my laptop for a while which... isn't really a machine I like very much, but such is life.

Thanks for the input though, all this talking has kept me sane throughout the last 24 hours. Freaking out would not have gotten me anywhere.
 
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Too bad none of that helped you. I do find it somewhat strange, though, that the hard drive could already be failing, given that it is at most only 3 years old. It's too bad you don't have a more robust Disk Maintenance/Repair program like Disk Warrior or Tech Tool Pro. They could be of substantial help with the issue.
 

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