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Clearing space on PS 'Scratch Disk'

Community Beginner ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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From a non-geek, fine art photographer in need!

I have a 2015 version of MacbookPro 13" Retina w/500 gB internal HD, quad core Intel 8mB RAM. Must clear space on PS scratch disk to cotinue refining 200+ Mb photo files but can't even get into PS now as I've used 499.8 gB in drive. Yes,  I'm an artist ... and a 'pack rat' with my significan photograpy photo files over the years -- probably not unusual for non-geek computer artists. HELP, PLEASE -- what TO DO?

Bob, ASC 'A'ssociate

bob@bobzahn.com

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Adobe
Community Beginner ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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When trying to open PS file receive ERROR MESSAGE  that Scratch Disk is FULL.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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Is it possible to move the files you are not using to an external drive and keep that drive with you in case you have to pull them up?

Another plan is your Creative Cloud storage or Dropbox, both which have versioning (keeping copies of any files you modify.

Both would free up drive space.

You can also add SSD storage to your 2015 MBP. I have 2TB on my mid-2012. That drive cost me $213.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuRM268LFb8

 

Gene

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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Let me see ...

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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Moving 2 dozen filed did the trik. TY, TY, TY!!!

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Community Expert ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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That's good to know. 🙂 Alway try the free and simple answers first.

 

Gene

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Community Expert ,
Apr 25, 2020 Apr 25, 2020

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And one other trick might be to add an external drive HFS formated and assign it as a scratch.

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Explorer ,
Apr 26, 2020 Apr 26, 2020

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Yup, I agree wholeheartidly with the below Reply.

 

If you have assigned scratch disk space on a drive that is being used for other purposes, it is quite possible for the other uses to fill up the disk such that the PS scratch allocation is meaningless.  I would suggest either not putting other files on the disk you are using for the PS scratch disk OR better, buy and dedicate a separate disk just for the PS scratch disk.  Otherwise, sooner or later the one disk will fill up and PS will be the loser.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 15, 2020 Dec 15, 2020

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I have four (4) external hard drives with adequate storage space. I have been trying to change from my system disk (SSD "C") to any one of the external drives.  In Preferences, I will change and then, later for no reason, swap back to my system drive.  I have PS CC-2021 on a Windows 10 PC.  Sometimes PS will load the photo for me and allow me to correct errors on the photo, but when I go to print PS trips off the line.  I can reload the photo and then PS will allow me to print the photo (90% of the time).  I'm attributing this problem to my scratch disk being full and I can't swap to another drive. This is driving me crazy because it prevents me from loading and printing photos - I'm on a photo restoration project and this is killing me.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 15, 2020 Dec 15, 2020

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Generally, external disks are not optimal for use as scratch disk, but if you have to -

 

Assign a high drive letter in Windows, one that will never be used for anything else. Then it will stick and Photoshop recognize it next time. If you just plug the disk in, it gets the first drive letter that is available at the moment. Next time that may be something else.

 

That said, the biggest payoff is to clean out your system drive. A lot of junk will accumulate in your user account over time.This is where all your applications put settings and user data of all kinds.

 

A fairly standard configuration of operating system and applications, including a range of CC applications, should not take up much more than 100GB or so. If it's much more than that, it's time for cleanup.

 

Here's mine. I keep it religiously clean, and have all temp and cache files moved elsewhere:

system_disk.png

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 19, 2020 Dec 19, 2020

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Thank you for your answer.  I fully understand what you said, But - I have an SSD hard drive that I use for my system disk; the disk has a capacity of 118 GB and has 54 GB left as free. It seems that this is not enough for Photoshop (not always).  So my problem is: I don't know what files to move off my hard drive. Can I just start moving files to another hard drive; i.e., is my Windows 10 smart enough to know what I've done?  I'm a user and not much of a Geek. 

Thanks 

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Community Expert ,
Dec 19, 2020 Dec 19, 2020

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In a pinch, you can try to use an external disk as scratch disk. Make sure it's a reasonably fast interface like USB3 or thunderbolt. It's not an optimal solution.

 

The unpleasant truth is that a laptop with a 120GB system disk is not suitable for serious Photoshop work. This is a professional application optimized for speed and efficiency, not limited machine resources.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 19, 2020 Dec 19, 2020

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Thank you; after Christmas, I'm going out to buy another hard drive and install it in my machine -- I have some extra slots for extra hard drives. Do I just tell PhotoShop that to use that new hard drive as my scratch disk? I'm concerned that this will not work since my C drive is the designated System Disk and my computer will care less that I have a new empty hard drive. My logic is: I have other external hard-drives that I have tried to tell PhotoShop to use one of these external hard-drives for my scratch disk; PhotoShop could care less!  PhotoShop just will not listen to my command; i.e., it keeps shifting back to my System Disk "C."  I may have given false information in a previous problem; i.e., my computer is a stand-alone computer, not a laptop.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 20, 2020 Dec 20, 2020

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Yes, a desktop computer always makes things much easier 🙂  If there is a problem or limitation, you can usually add or replace components. With a laptop you're stuck with what you have.

 

External drives will not always work as scratch - but even if it does, you have to go into windows and assign a high drive letter to it. Otherwise it just gets the lowest available each time you boot up, and that may change from day to day. Then Photoshop won't recognize it.

 

But another internal drive should be recognized without any problems. It's hard-wired into the machine's I/O system and the drive letter doesn't change.

 

 

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