Can't open files because scratch disks too full

[Tara5EDC]

I have photoshop 2020, and have been using it for the last few days for a uni project. I've just tried to open a pdf to edit and save as a jpeg, and firstly, the file opened but said I couldn't crop the pdf because the scratch disks were full. Then, when I closed and reopened the app, I couldn't even open the file with the same message popping up. I've looked at other threads on here that have said to hold down ctrl 

+ alt when the app is launching to access the scratch disks but this is all that is coming up (see attached)? I don't understand as it appears that there's still space on the scratch disk? I really need to use photoshop for a project that is handed in soon, so any help would be really appreciated. 

[JJMack]

You need more free space. I have seen Photoshop use over 100GB of free space on my scratch disk. 8GB is not good. When I start Photoshop I see it use 7GB before I even open one a document.

[Tara5EDC]

Thanks for your reply. I take it to get more space I need to delete files on that specific scratch disk? 

[D Fosse]

Yes, you need to clear out as much as possible. Anything not system-related, put it on an external disk for now.

"Scratch disk" sounds like a Photoshop setting, but in reality it just means free disk space. Photoshop needs a lot to work normally. 8GB doesn't even begin to cover it - in fact, that's so low that you can get into other problems very soon. I can fill up 8GB in thirty seconds. You need 8 or 10 times that.

In the longer run, you should probably try to clean up your user account. This is where all you applications put all settings and user data that aren't basic program files. Over time, this accumulates. Things just go in here and never goes out again. In some cases you can free up 50 to 100GB here.

A clean install of operating system and a "normal" range of applications should not fill up more than about 100GB or so. If it's much more than that, you should start cleaning up.

[Tara5EDC]

Thanks for your advice.

[Guest]

You can use this tool to see what's using up the space on your drives

https://windirstat.net/

[D Fosse]

Yes, I was about to recommend WinDirStat. I have it installed here and check it from time time. The big blue blobs are hibernation and pagefile. Hibernation can be disabled, I just haven't gotten around to it.

[Tara5EDC]

Thanks for your help, I've cleaned up a load of my files and I've got 112GB out of 225GB now.