Spinning beach ball on mac mini - help!

Question

Every time I try to do anything on this mini, I have to wait for the spinning ball to disappear.
Info provided by using EtreCheck:
Hardware Information:
          Mac mini (Mid 2007)
          Mac mini - model: Macmini2,1
          1 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores
          2 GB RAM
Video Information:
          GMA 950 - VRAM: spdisplays_integrated_vram
Startup Items:
          DynDNSUpdater - Path: /Library/StartupItems/DynDNSUpdater
          PhoneValet - Path: /Library/StartupItems/PhoneValet
System Software:
          Mac OS X 10.7.5 (11G63) - Uptime: 5 days 22:44
Disk Information:
          Hitachi HTS542516K9SA00 disk0 : (160.04 GB)
                    disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD 20081214 (disk0s2) /: 159.18 GB (56.59 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information:
          Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
                    Fujitsu Component Apple Optical USB Mouse
                    Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
          DYMO DYMO LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo
          Parliant Parliant Telephony Adapter II
          Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
FireWire Information:
          DMI 00FUA0 400mbit - 400mbit max
                    disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 32 KB
                    MyBackupDisk (disk1s3) /Volumes/MyBackupDisk: 249.93 GB (54.64 GB free)
Thunderbolt Information:
Kernel Extensions:
          com.DataRobotics.driver.iSCSIInitiator          Version: 1.4.33
          com.FTDI.driver.FTDIUSBSerialDriver          Version: 2.2.14
Problem System Launch Daemons:
          [not loaded] ftp-proxy.plist
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
          [loaded] com.atomicbird.macaroni.launchd.plist
          [loaded] com.cocoatech.pathfinder.SMFHelper.plist
          [loaded] com.cocoatech.pathfinder.SMFHelper6.plist
          [loaded] com.cocoatech.pathfinder.SMFHelper7.plist
          [loaded] com.datarobotics.ddservice64d.plist
          [loaded] com.datarobotics.ddserviced.plist
          [not loaded] com.dymo.pnpd.plist
          [loaded] com.orbicule.uc.plist
          [loaded] com.orbicule.uclocator.plist
          [loaded] com.parliant.telephony.plist
          [loaded] com.stclairsoft.DefaultFolderXAgent.plist
          [loaded] openbase.plist
Launch Agents:
          [failed] com.bjango.istatlocal.plist
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.macupdate.desktop5.scanner.plist
          [loaded] openlaunch.plist
          [loaded] ws.agile.1PasswordAgent.plist
User Login Items:
          PhoneValet
          LaunchBar
          EEventManager
          Mail
          Keyboard Maestro Engine
          iTeleport Connect
          DDAssist
          SpeechSynthesisServer
          ValetDialer.service
          Dropbox
          Evernote
          HazelHelper
          InstUtilLaunch
          EEventManager
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Application Enhancer
          Default Folder X
          Flash Player
          Flip4Mac WMV
          Hazel
          Macaroni
          OpenBasePreferences
          Perian
Internet Plug-ins:
          CouponPrinter-FireFox.plugin
          DYMO NPAPI Addin.plugin
          DYMO Safari Addin.plugin
          Flash Player.plugin
          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
          QuickTime Plugin.plugin
          Silverlight.plugin
User Internet Plug-ins:
Bad Fonts:
          None
Top Processes by CPU:
              15%          Safari
               2%          EtreCheck
               1%          WindowServer
               1%          Activity
               1%          activitymonitord
               1%          ps
               0%          Dropbox
               0%          fontd
               0%          Keyboard
               0%          EEventManager
Top Processes by Memory:
          360 MB             Safari
          123 MB             Mail
          98 MB              Path
          84 MB              WebProcess
          76 MB              DYMO
          59 MB              Finder
          53 MB              LaunchBar
          49 MB              mdworker
          49 MB              Dropbox
          47 MB              mds
Virtual Memory Statistics
          211 MB             Free RAM
          1.10 GB            Active RAM
          421 MB             Inactive RAM
          288 MB             Wired RAM
          9.43 GB            Page-ins
          2.39 GB            Page-outs

Answer 1

Hi Jan,
Great work so far, how long has it taken those 2.39 GB of PageOuts to accumulate?
That is from last startup.
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.
See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7029
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons