Scratch disks are full

[Donald]

I'm doing a print run at the moment using Photoshop and have just hit a problem. In trying to resize an image I get the following appearing on the screen, 'Could not complete the Image Size command because scratch disks are full'

Can you tell me what a Scratch Disk is and what do I do to empty it/them?

[ST1]

Donald if you look in the settings/preferences with Photoshop one of the options is the size/capacity of your system disk that you allow photoshop to use as a scratch disk.
Providing that you have capacity in your system disk to do so, you can increase the amount of scratch disk for photoshops use.
Photoshop uses the scratch disk for temporary storage as it is carrying out the task you have set it to do, IHTH



Sent from somewhere in Gods County using Tapatalk

[Donald]

Thanks Peter.

Ok, I have the capacity in the system disk. How do I increase the capacity of the scratch disk?

Instructions in words of one syllable for a non-techie like me!

[Polar01]

Donald do not make the system drive also a scratch disk, just chose a different drive any drive, as it is only for temporary storage it will be cleared as soon as photoshop not longer needs it.

Cheers: Allan

[ST1]

Thanks Peter.

Ok, I have the capacity in the system disk. How do I increase the capacity of the scratch disk?

Instructions in words of one syllable for a non-techie like me!

Donald the web page in the following link gives you all of the information regarding scratch disks and performance suggestions.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb...rformance.html

The following image (a screen grab of the Preferences) shows how my PC is set for my scratch disk. The preference settings are in the "EDIT" drop down menu on a Windows system. You will see from the image that I'm using a "D" drive for my scratch disk, not my system drive which is "C".
Also note the Information hint in the lower part of the image that advises that you can change which disk on your system is used as the scratch disk by holding Ctrl and Alt when photoshop is starting up.

I'll message you with my mobile number just in case you need any more information.

[Donald]

Peter. Many thanks for all your help. I think I have it sorted now. I'm not sure why it threw up the message it did because I have lots of space in the SSD to which it is attached. But, it certainly seems fixed, so I'll keep going until/if it does happens again.

[shreds]

Sorry, only just seen this.

Donald, it should be fine now you have set a reasonable capacity for the scratch disk and will remain so unless you change your camera or file sizes being imported significantly. It is, as said, only for temporary storage whilst PS is working on the image. As such it is not going to get clogged up with data over time like a standard drive.

[george013]

If you've somewhere an empty usb drive, you might connect it to the pc and use it as a scratch disk. Try it and see what influence it has on the speed. I wouldn't use the primary drive for scratch.

George

[TonyW]

When resizing, sometimes the order in which you specify size in centimetres or inches and the number of pixels per inch can cause trouble as I have found the hard way. I now always specify the size in pixels and then the number of pixels per inch, which requires a small calculation first.

[george013]

When resizing, sometimes the order in which you specify size in centimetres or inches and the number of pixels per inch can cause trouble as I have found the hard way. I now always specify the size in pixels and then the number of pixels per inch, which requires a small calculation first.

I don't understand that. Resizing is just changing the amount of pixels. The other variables, density and output size, are just used in a tool to calculate the amount of pixels. Or better, if you know two of those variables the third can be calculated. A very simple one time calculation. I don't see how that affects a scratch disk.

George

[DanK]

I don't understand it either. Resizing (# of pixels) is a complex computation. DPI is simply rescaling for output, so it should be a simple calculation. Then again, I have no first-hand experience either way, as I have never run out of scratch space, and I generally resize in Lightroom by specifying output size when exporting.

[TonyW]

I can't remember the exact circumstances where I had trouble. Since I now always specify the size in pixels I haven't had any problem for a long time. However, the problem occurred when the pixels per inch were set at some reasonably high value and the size was set in inches. The projected file size can become very large and the problem was evident even before the image size was finally set. Perhaps I am thinking of something other than photoshop.

[george013]

I can't remember the exact circumstances where I had trouble. Since I now always specify the size in pixels I haven't had any problem for a long time. However, the problem occurred when the pixels per inch were set at some reasonably high value and the size was set in inches. The projected file size can become very large and the problem was evident even before the image size was finally set. Perhaps I am thinking of something other than photoshop.

As mentioned before, you just use that tool to calculate the desired size in pixels. That's the only factor that can be used: dpi and metric size are just used to calculate that.
If you set the print resolution high and the metric sizes high then you'll get a very, very big file. Then it's possible you run out off memory. Exactly the same would happen if you specified that amount of pixels directly.

George

[Manfred M]

If you've somewhere an empty usb drive, you might connect it to the pc and use it as a scratch disk. Try it and see what influence it has on the speed. I wouldn't use the primary drive for scratch.

George

It depends. In general I would agree that the system drive is probably not the best drive to select as one of the scratch drives, but if the system drive happens to be a SSD drive and the other drives mechanical hard drives, using the system drive will be the better choice as it will be much faster than the mechanical drives.

USB drives tend to be slower than other drives so using one of these as a scratch drive is generally not going to be as good (fast) as an internal SATA drive.

It's not necessarily all that straight forward.

[george013]

It depends. In general I would agree that the system drive is probably not the best drive to select as one of the scratch drives, but if the system drive happens to be a SSD drive and the other drives mechanical hard drives, using the system drive will be the better choice as it will be much faster than the mechanical drives.

USB drives tend to be slower than other drives so using one of these as a scratch drive is generally not going to be as good (fast) as an internal SATA drive.

It's not necessarily all that straight forward.

That's why I wrote

If you've somewhere an empty usb drive, you might connect it to the pc and use it as a scratch disk. Try it and see what influence it has on the speed. I wouldn't use the primary drive for scratch.

A good habit, use the primary drive only for os related stuff.

George

[Manfred M]

A good habit, use the primary drive only for os related stuff.

I disagree. I use my primary SSD as a scratch disk and it is much faster than using a secondary mechanical drive. A USB drive will be much slower than an internal SSD or SATA drive.

I know because I have tested all these configurations. If your computer can take an M.2 drive it is the fastest option.

[george013]

I disagree. I use my primary SSD as a scratch disk and it is much faster than using a secondary mechanical drive. A USB drive will be much slower than an internal SSD or SATA drive.

I know because I have tested all these configurations. If your computer can take an M.2 drive it is the fastest option.

Manfred, I wrote "A GOOD HABIT IS...". Separate os and data as much as possible. Nothing to do with scratch disk.

If Donald has a pc with room for another disk, just install another. At the shop I was looking now the minimal size is 1TB, less then €50.00.

George

[Manfred M]

Manfred, I wrote "A GOOD HABIT IS...". Separate os and data as much as possible. Nothing to do with scratch disk.

If Donald has a pc with room for another disk, just install another. At the shop I was looking now the minimal size is 1TB, less then €50.00.

George

George - I have a laptop with a single disk drive. Virtually every laptop I know ships that way. Yes, I know I could set up a separate partition on the drive and pretend there are two drives, but that has no practical purpose for most people or for the drive as there is a single interface to the computer,likely through a SATA connection so limits on virtual memory and swap drives could be trying to communicate with the drive at the same time using that interface. For some software a swap drive is still necessary even though there is only a single drive on the computer. I've been running my laptop for years this way.

As I said in my other statements, it's not as simple as you make out and different solutions need to be considered.

[george013]

George - I have a laptop with a single disk drive. Virtually every laptop I know ships that way. Yes, I know I could set up a separate partition on the drive and pretend there are two drives, but that has no practical purpose for most people or for the drive as there is a single interface to the computer,likely through a SATA connection so limits on virtual memory and swap drives could be trying to communicate with the drive at the same time using that interface. For some software a swap drive is still necessary even though there is only a single drive on the computer. I've been running my laptop for years this way.

As I said in my other statements, it's not as simple as you make out and different solutions need to be considered.

I don't think Donald is using Photoshop on a laptop. My post 17

If Donald has a pc with room for another disk, just install another. At the shop I was looking now the minimal size is 1TB, less then €50.00.

Well, he must know his possibilities now.

George

[Donald]

I lost what this thread was saying quite a long time ago. However, my problem is now solved thanks to simple, straightforward advise.