Random excessive scratch disc size

[papaindigo]

I know how to change the scratch disc location in PE 19 and have done so but that is NOT the issue.  The issue is 1) I scan 12 slides at once; 2) I open the resulting file and uses Image>divide scanned images to split the 12 slide images into 12 JPGs for processing; 3) I save the JPGs; 4) I later come back and open the 12 JPGs for processing.  At this point sometimes the scratch space used is ca. 2-4GBs which is about right given the size of the JPGs but other times its more like 30-40GBs. Why?

[Test Screen Name]

30-40 is entirely normal, you just need to make at least that much available. Bear in mind the scratch space may store many, many copies of each image, since it is used for the history.

[papaindigo · Accepted solution]

Ok I see what's going on now.  The "problem" I was having happens at step 2 above.  When I split the single JPG into 12 individual slide JPGs the scratch space size jumps from 2-4GB to 40GB+.  If I keep those 12 individual slides open in PE and repeat the split operation on another batch or 2 of scanned slides the scratch space gets gargantuan which is what overwhelmed my available free space on my "c" drive.  However, if I do only one split operation at a time AND close and save the 12 individual slide JPGs for processing later the used scratch space disappears and I can reopen all of those same 12 slides to process and they only use 2-4GBs.  I've fixed the amount of space problem by shifting scratch space from "c" drive to another drive with a whole lot more free space.  That said the take home message is do be careful NOT to work on "lots" of images in PE at the same time as doing so can use massive amounts of scratch space and/or move PE's scratch space to a drive with lots of free space.  My bad is I was not aware that PE took up so much scratch space simply splitting scanned images from one JPG to multiple individual JPGs.