Change The Scratch Disk Drive In Photoshop

[Analisa Wisdom]

Forsmaller processes and edits, Adobe says you will need 1.5 GB plus 2 times the size of all the files you have open at once. For large processes and complex edits, they say that you could need current document sizes multiplied by the number of history states (you can adjust the number of history states by going to Edit > Preferences > Performance).

If you need more scratch space, one of the easiest and quickest ways to free up space is to move the scratch disks to another drive. By default your scratch disks will be stored on your system drive, but you can change that by going to Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks and assigning a new drive, or additional drives. You can assign up to 4 hard drives or SSD drives to be used as scratch space.

If your main system drive is an SSD, you may as well use your main drive as your scratch disk drive; there is no performance penalty, as long as it has enough free space to run efficiently. However, if your main drive is a hard drive, then you will see a performance increase from moving your scratch disks to another drive. You can use a secondary drive as scratch disk space, either another internal drive or even an external hard drive/ssd drive as long as you are using a fast connection like USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt.

You can also reduce the size of a large document you are working with by cleaning up any unnecessary layers. Duplicating the background layer of a photograph doubles the image size and increases it by the original image size again for every new duplicated photographic layer.

Sometimes an error or a corrupted preferences file in Photoshop can affect your scratch disks. Fortunately, resetting the preferences can be done on launch in much the same way as resetting the scratch disk drive. To reset Photoshop preferences, you can hold down CTRL+ALT+SHIFT (Windows) or CMD+OPTION+SHIFT (Mac) while Photoshop is launching. Because this will reset the preferences, you should back up your preferences before resetting them if at all possible .

Having the exact same issue. My external SSD drive will not show up in the Scratch Disks Preferences box no matter how many times I restart Photoshop with external SSD hd plugged in. What am I missing?

If your computer has a fast solid-state disk drive (SSD), use the SSD as the scratch disk. Don't use the same hard disk drive (HDD) where the operating system is installed or where the files you edit are stored. Also, don't use a network or removable drive.

I keep getting the "scratch disk is full" and I'm wondering if I can change the C drive to One drive. I have much more space in my one drive, but I don't see where I can actually change the location..I am clicking and double clicking everything in this menu but am not given any more options.

Hi there,

That does not sound good, could you please let us know the version of Photoshop you're using by going to Help > System Info?

Also, we do not recommend saving or opening Photoshop files from a server or cloud as it might affect the performance.

You may setup an external drive as a scratch disk in Photoshop, please have a look here for more information: -disks-preferences.html

Regards,

Sahil

I am running Photoshop CC on my MacBook Air with macOS Sierra. Every time I attempt to open Photoshop through any means, the following message appears: "Could not initialize Photoshop because the scratch disks are full", and Photoshop does not open. I tried clearing space from my Mac in general including several GB worth of apps and removing several cache files, but nothing seems to work. I also tried holding down the command and option keys to reveal the Scratch Disk Preferences, and it lets me select the Startup and MacIntosh HD. Again, nothing worked. Anyone know how to fix this message, and/or clear scratch disk space?

This is super late, but for anyone else who runs into this issue...Similar thing happened to me. Do you make new files by pixel size or by inches? I usually go by pixels (ex: 2500x3000 or something like that), but I apparently I had accidentally switched to inches and it would only let me max the numbers to 1000. Went back to pixels and it all worked out!

We're sorry for the scratch disk issue. Take a look at the following troubleshooting article which can help you to resolve the "Scratch disk is full" error: Troubleshoot scratch disk full errors in Photoshop

I am trying to change the scratch disk to my external hard drive by going to preferences> Scratch disks etc but my External HD isn't showing as an option and it won't allow me to de-select the Mac HD option either. Even when I launch PS and press Command + option it doesn't show my external HD as an option.

hey, i had the same problem - the external drive just won't show up in the list of possible scratch disks. what i found is that your external drive shouldn't be fat32 but os-x-extended, that's the reason. so you're left with two options: you either format your drive into mac's file system or give up. x

I am running PS 2020 on a Windows 7 and I seemed unable to select my scratch disk from the edit> Preferences>Scratch Disk. I even tried to rename the PS settings folder in the user roaming profile and did a clt-alt keystroke before launching the program, but alas to no avail.

Do you actually have another disk? If so, what kind, how is it connected? How is it formatted? If external, are you reconnecting it so that the drive letter changes? (that can be avoided by assigning a high letter).

To refurish more info, my W7 has 1 SDD and 1 SATA. I am planning to use the SATA disk as scratch disk since it has > 800 Gb of free space. This disk is formatted as NTFS and as admin, I have full rights to the disk, meaning I am able to read/write and even format the disk. This SATA disk is a 2nd disk meant for storage and it is not holding any system files.

I've managed to resolve my issue. Apparently, I need to change the Enviromnet variables under the Advanced system settings to route TEMP and TMP to my secondary disk and do a reboot before I get to see the scratch disk is routed to my desired drive.

I have no idea what you are talking about! Evironment variables? That's a new one on me. And just to clarify, I don't have any issue with scratch disks. I simply wanted to add another external drive to the list. It has Macintosh HD as #1 and I have a LaCie that is listed 2nd. but it's not showing my additional LaCie which is 5TB and I wanted to list it as #3, but photoshop doesn't see it. (I'm sure it's formated the same as the other, so that can't be the problem). My iMac sees it fine. It's photoshop 2019 that doesn't see it. (I can't use Photoshop 2020 or 2021 cuz I'm using macOSCatalina -- which pissses me off to no end)! Why didn't Adobe warn us of this before Catalina came out???!!! Why do I keep payng this damned $52 every month when I CAN"T EVEN USE IT!!!!! It's extortion!

@KokoBlue...I am just sharing my findings and managed to resolve the issue I have. Obviously, you didnt read what machine I am using which the solution I managed to get somewhat solved the issue. As for your Mac, good luck to you. I am a user and not Adobe staff. I understand your frustrations but you should direct your anguish to the relevant group of people , instead of the communites where users sharing ideas/solutions to help each other.

The Photoshop scratch disk is your hard drive. Normally, RAM on your computer is enough to support Photoshop to perform an operation. However, when RAM is not enough, Photoshop will use your hard drive as virtual memory place. So, if you are a frequent Photoshop user, there is a big possibility that Photoshop scratch disk is full issue might occur, especially you are using Photoshop to make a logo.

It is advisable to set the fastest disk (except for removable drives) as the scratch disk. Please do not to use the same hard drive where your OS is stored. If you are using Mac, it is ok to set SSD (solid state disk drive) as scratch disk even if it is where your OS is stored.

It is still possible to encounter Photoshop scratch disk full error even though the scratch disk has free space. The reason behind it is fragmented free space on scratch disk drive. While working, Photoshop requires unfragmented free space.

People also complain that they encounter Photoshop scratch disk full error while cropping. This is largely because you input the size and resolution wrong. To avoid generating big cropping files, please press Clear in the options bar before dragging a crop selection.

That's all for how to fix couldn't initialize Photoshop because the disk is full issue. Try those 6 tips and you can surely fix it. By the way, DesignEvo is indeed a nice Photoshop alternative for logo design. Why not give it a try?

3a8082e126