MacBook very VERY slow - help plz!

Question

Hi, woke up this morning and my MacBook (early 2009 revision) is running horribly slowly. In fact its hardly workable at all it is so slow.
I have tried it all
- start in safe mode
- resetting pram
- aplle+s then fsck - fy ; reboot
but nothing works. it is SO SLOW!!!
It would be nice to know if this is hardward-based or not.
Is there anything else I can try before doing the full reinstall?
Any suggestions welcome.
Thxs,

Answer 1

If the previous idea did not help, then you need to backup your files, erase the drive, then reinstall Mountain Lion. Unless I misunderstood your reply. I understood you to say the computer was still running slow.
Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.