My Mac is on its knees!!!

i've taken plunge , updated imac 8,1 2.8 core 2 duo 4gb ram, 1tb hd 10.6.8 el capitan. think i've made world's biggest mistake!! it. is. crawling!! apps taking absolute age open - apple ones maps , safari - , it's beachball city. machine fast under snow leopard. also, screen sharing appears broken - neither screen sharing nor remote management when ticked in settings, allow sort of outbound connection. can screen share other macs. booted recovery mode , ran disk utility , hasn't done anything. if worse comes worst, if boot recovery , select 'restore time machine backup', did before upgraded, restore mac how - ie, running snow leopard? there's 400gb of free space on drive scratch-disk required whilst doing should sufficient. help...

 

what you're experiencing call "expected behavior" when "upgrade" older mac (yours 2008-vintage, right?) 1 of apple's newer os's.

why that, you're wondering?

since release of mavericks (10.9), apple has re-engineered way memory loaded , sense "new paradigm" puts more stress on internal drive. more "page ins" , "page outs", speak. works enough on macs ssds , fusion drives, "puts brakes" on macs platter-based hard drives.

isn't older mac hdd can run el cap, low sierra, or high sierra.
however, viewpoint of user, experience going more os "walking" instead of "running". i'm sure point.

solution?
1 can offer is, go to, say, os 10.8 (mountain lion) , "be happy there".
or.. used slower running.

might try in situation:
1. disable spotlight (can done in terminal)
2. bump ram far can go, try disabling vm swapping (again, in terminal).
try #2 if can 6gb of ram or more.

haven't told financial situation is, might time start shopping around new (or perhaps 2015 apple-refurbished) mac...

 

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