.:scratch Volume

sizzla · 02-24-2006

I have an old Pentium Celeron computer that brings me hell when it comes to PS. The error message that i get says i should change the PS scratch volume. How do i do this?

zapphnath · 02-24-2006

Photoshop's scratch disc/volume serves the same purpose as Window's pagefile or virtual memory - it's where information is written to, temporarily, such as history states and all of the layers, etc.. If you have a second physical hard drive in your system, PS wants you to set the scratch disc to be on the other drive, that way it doesn't interfere with the pagefile and vice-versa. If you only have one hdd, then this isn't an option. You could try lowering the amount of history states (under preferences) so that the space needed for scratch is smaller. It may help - it may not.
Your best bet would be to install a second hdd, even if you just get a used 2GB one off of eBay (which would probably cost more for shipping than to buy it) and set PS's scratch disc to that one (again, under preferences).

sizzla · 02-24-2006

Thanx zapphnath (hope i got that right) i was already thinking of installing a new 80GB HDD...which brings me to my second question, if i manually install the 2nd HDD do i have to load the OS onto the new drive as well or will a formatted HDD work just as well.

zapphnath · 02-24-2006

The OS only has to be on the main hdd. Any applications should be installed on the main drive, also. The additional drive(s) can be used primarily for data. You can, also, partition the secondary drive to make organization easier. I have two physical hdd's, but seven drives. OS and app's on one and the rest divided up for pics, music, movies, etc.. With your new one, you might want to, at least, partition a small area just for the scratch disc.

sizzla · 02-24-2006

Thanx a lot...i will follow your advice to the tee.

redtan · 02-24-2006

i would get something bigger than 2 gigs...if you are going to work with large psd files...trust me you can go over 2 gig on scratch disk with large file...especially if you are working on tradebooths...

zapphnath · 02-24-2006

Yeah, 2GB is a little small and would, probably, be a little hard to find in working condition, considerring how long it's been since one was made. I just used that number as an example for how to get around this problem inexpensively.