Must I buy something to back up files to stop this death wheel?

An external drive, then run time machine.

So I can go on Amazon, type in “external drive” and when it arrives I’m all set? It seems like it would have to be a more specific order than just “external drive.”

This is not going to fix your problem but if you want to backup your data then you’ll want an external drive. Once you plug it in any recent mac os will ask you what you want to do with it. Select time machine backup. Then if you have to get a new hard drive for your mac you can restore everything from the external drive.

It won’t get rid of the spinning wheel? That’s what I want to do. I don’t want to back up my data for no benefit.

You back it up because fixing whatever problem you have or the problem itself could wipe out everything.

You can sign up for Backblaze, and online backup service.

The “death wheel” is a symptom of a serious malfunction, and you will want to back up your files before you take it to a shop for repair. You can back up files to an external hard drive or to the cloud by buying space. More than likely, the repair will wipe out everything on the computer.

Well regardless of fixing the problem or not backing up your files is advisable anyway. It’s always wise to have back-ups of any files you don’t want to lose even if the computer is in perfect health.

What’s a “death wheel?”

Sorry to be so techno-clueless.

I subscribe to Carbonite. It’s about $70 a year, and it backs up your files all the time. I’ll never have to worry about losing my files the way I did that when year when I crashed my operating system!