Mac running slowly with Lion.

Question

My Mac has been running slowly with Lion. Its a 2008 20inch iMac. Its been a fabulous machine and I love it but since running Lion is has been slow and unresponsive, and I really want this sorted. I have read a few places about doing clean installs, but this sounds risky and complex? Can anyone help me make this the awesome machine that it once was?
Happy Days
Stuart

Answer 1

If you have only the minimum required ram installed to run Lion (2gb), that may be why.  4gb is best.  Clean installs aren't risky and complex as long as you have a backup of your data.  A clean install would involve first erasing your hdd via disc utility, powering down, then powering on while holding down the option key (same as holding command+r, but one less key to hold) to get you into Lion recovery.  Install Lion, and it will look as if you just bought the machine new.  Then, you would need to selectivley restore items from a backup (if you do a normal install by just restoring everything from your backup, you will have defeated the purpose of a clean install in my mind).  You will also need disc 2 that came with your mac to reinstall GarageBand, iWeb, iDVD, and iPhoto or else you will lose.  There are plenty of tutorials online and many experienced people here who can walk you through it.  May, sound intimidating, but it can be done if you can follow directions (they aren't complicated)