Adobe Photoshop/scratch disk error

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Expert: - 11/29/2005


Question
While using adobe photoshop 3.1, and trying to Copy and paste I get a "scratch disk full" error, I found where these "temp" files are being kept and I deleted them, restarted the machine, yet I still get the error.

Machine runs perfect otherwise OS is WINXP PRO, 504 RAM on machine settings in Preferences on Adobe are

SCRATCH DISKS:
PRIMARY C:SECONDARY C:
PHYSICAL MEMORY USAGE
AVAILABLE RAM 466430K
USED BY PHOTOSHOP DELUXE 75%
PhotoDeluxe RAM: 349822K

I have changed the SCRATCH DISK location to whatever the other choice is... but same thign happens!

ANY HELP APPRECIATED!

Answer
Hi Nina,

You might already know this, but the scratch disk is what Photoshop uses to store temporary information as you edit a photo. For lackof a better terms it uses this scratch area as "virtual memory" so that it can write back and forth betweeen RAM and your hard drive.

Your scratch disk should be your largest and fastest drive. If you only have one drive, it helps to partition that drive so that you have more than one area in which Photoshop can assign scratch information. That way Photoshop doesn't constantly try to write information to your main drive, and your main drive can be freed up to run your operating system, etc.

But if you don't have your drive partitioned, the best thing you can do is increase the RAM in your machine. I'm sure your machine does run fine for everything, but when it comes to Photoshop, having a lot of RAM is essential.

A basic rule of thumb (albeit rough) is that for any image you have open in Photoshop, you should have twice its size in available RAM. So if you have a 100MB image, you should have at least 200MB in RAM. You have that, if you have 540MB of RAM in your machine -- but of course, your machine is also running an operating system and related things in the background, and therefore allocating less RAM to Photoshop.

Anyway, my suggestion would be to increase your machine's RAM, and/or partition your hard drive. Bear in mind that partitioning your hard drive involves erasing it completely, so remember to back up all your files first!

Hope this helps --

Lisa

Adobe Photoshop

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LizaL

Expertise

I've used Photoshop since the release of version 2. I taught college commercial art and graphic design for 10 years, and within that realm, taught Photoshop at every level, and with each successive product upgrade. My experience with Photoshop is thus extensive and well-rounded, from photo retouching to color adjustment to incorporating Photoshop and ImageReady into Web design. I am primarily a Mac user (since 1985), but am also PC-savvy.

Experience

I've been a graphic designer for 22 years, was a national magazine art director, a designer for the Department of Defense, a college art instructor, and have my own freelance Web and graphic design business, LittleWorks (www.little-works.com). I've also worked for several printing companies, in both prepress and art.

Awards and Honors
PICA award (Printing Industry of the Carolinas Award for the design of a media kit that accompanied a magazine I was art directing at the time)

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