Usb 3.0 as scratch disk in photoshop?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
August 5, 2022
5 replies
11284 views

I'm trying to use a SanDisk 256gb usb 3.0 thumb drive on windows as scratch disk and it's formatted as FAT32 and Photoshop 2022 will not recognize the drive in scratch disk preferences, so should I format the thunb drive to NTFS?

Windows

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JHillPhD

Known Participant

I have a SanDisk external SSD 1TB and I have formatted it to "MacOS Journaled"but you can format it to NTFS since it's faster than the other formats. If you work between both PC and Mac then FAT32 is the way to go. Once you're done start up Photoshop then go to Preferences -- Scratch Disks and you should see your drive in the list. Click the check box and move it to the top of the list so Photoshop knows to use that drive first for the heavy lifting and make sure it's empty with no files saved on it to get the most out of it.

Chris 486

Community Expert

I would recommend formatting to NTFS for better speed. It may help the drive to be recognized as well. Are you getting any errors specifically or are you just not seeing it as an option?

Ged and Test do have a point as thumb drives can be more delicate to use. Yes, they can and will work, but also yes that they are not normally recommended for scratch disk use.

Chris 486

Community Expert

Quick format should be fine. If you navigate to your Photoshop.exe file (most likely found in this path - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2022) right click that file and select "run as administrator".

When running the app as an admin, does that allow you to see the drive?

Referencing this thread here: Solved: Photoshop 2022 Scratch Disk not showing all hard d... - Adobe Support Community - 12529145

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David Frock Nor CalAuthor

Participating Frequently

That reminds me, I have to run photoshop as administrator everytime or it freezes or doesn't let me select menus, it's very glitch, not as solid as the old programs before 2010, no the quick format or the run as administrator don't work to have the drive recognized, I just buy a ssd drive for $49.99

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David Frock Nor CalAuthor

Participating Frequently

I know the page says no thumb drives and the photoshop preferences won't even recognize the thumb drive as drive d: like my computer will show it as drive d: so yeah thumb drives won't work and the other poster said use a ssd drive with USB 3.0 because they are built differently and so did the adobe chat agree with that

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Test Screen Name

Legend

It may seem that an external hard drive is just the same thing as a thumb drive. But really, they are not. They just aren't made for that sort of heavy use. Without recommending it for this use, I note that Sandisk make a range of "Portable SSD".