Change primary scratch disk?

I'd like to change my primary scratch disk from my internal drive to an external drive. How is this best accomplished? (Unhelpfully, the primary scratch disk pull-down from the easy setup seems to disappear once you initially set the disk.)

Gregory,
you don't delete but substitute (SET) your scratch disk. You tell FCP to use your external drive as scratch disk, new capture scratch, audio files and render files folders will be automatically created in the external drive.
Regarding your stuff in your internal drive, it will stay where it is, it does not get deleted.

Similar Messages

Photoshop CS5 does not want to open after I changed the scratch disks in prefs

I was working on a large document in Photoshop CS5 that ate too much of my main drive (to the point I had to quite and restart a few times to clear it out) when the main drive was set as a scratch disk. I went in to preferences and changed the scratch disk to my secondary internal drive, where I keep all my media. Then quit Photoshop to clear the cache.
When I tried to open Photoshop again I get a message at start up (haven't gotten in to the program yet) saying: "Could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available". Clicked OK. Then another warning message: "Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available."
Both disks are mounted and available. Since Photoshop never actually opens up I cannot go in and reset the scratch disk to my intinital settings.
Anybody got an idea what I can do to solve this?
Thanks,
/Fred

Worst case: trashing prefs by keeping ctrl-alt-shift pressed while starting Photoshop (and then using the dialog) should allow you to open it.

Changing the scratch disk to hard drive

Hello, I've read the forums on here on how to change the scratch disk. I have a Mac Book Pro and I've downloaded the trial version of Adobe Photoshop CC. I brought a Seagate Hard drive 4TB and it's installed and ready to go on my computer, but for some reason I still can't change it. Whenever I go to the Scratch Disk Preferences, the only option I have to change the scratch disk to, is to the Macintosh HD... What am I doing wrong? I don't have enough memory with the regular Mac.
Also, I tried the Command + Alt(option) right on cold starting the program, which brings up scratch disk preferences and, still, I do not get the option of changing it to the Back Up drive from Seagate. Help please.

how did you install the HD
how is it formatted (try using Apple's Disk Utility> Erase> Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

How can I change my scratch disk?

I used to use FCE and always used a scratch disk, i.e., an external hard drive for the actual footage so it wouldn't clog up my computer's drive.
I've been looking for a way to do this in iMovie '09, but can't figure out how.
Anybody know how to do this?

Your external rive must be formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). If not, you can reformat using Disk Utiltity.
On the iMovie Import Screen, you can select an external drive as the target for the import. This will remain the default place for importing events until you change it.
For Events that you have already imported, you can move them to an external drive. This must be done from within iMovie, so you do not break the links to the projects.
In iMovie, click VIEW/EVENTS BY DISK. You should now see your Event Library with small icons for available external disks. Hold down the Command Key as you drag the Event icon to the icon for the external drive in the Event Library List. (If you do not hold down the Command key, it will Copy, not Move).
I also suggest you look in Help at the Consolidate Media command. This is a good way to put all Project assets into the same external drive.

How do I change the scratch disk?

How do I edit disk ? - I'm getting the "disk is full" warning.
How do I edit scratch disk ?

I like that you used a big, easy to read font, but you didn't use quite enough words...
Please list the OS and Photoshop version you're using.
Are any of your disks actually full?
If you can open Photoshop, you can configure the scratch disk preferences in Edit - Preferences - Performance (in recent versions of Photoshop that is).
If you can't even open Photoshop, you can set your scratch disk preferences by pressing and holding the Control and Alt keys (or their Mac equivalents) immediately upon cold-starting Photoshop. You have to be very quick, and if you're quick enough it will prompt you as follows:
-Noel

On project load, CC7.2 on Windows 8 forces me to change scratch disk location away from Mac-formatted external HDD

When I open a project saved on my external hard drive it wants to change the scratch disks to My Documents Folder.
Once I accept it, it opens the project and then I am actually able to change the scratch disks back. Weird.
It's worth mentioning that my external drive is formatted for Mac and I bought a driver from Paragon allowing my PC to read and write to it. Idk if this is where Pr gets confused.
Windows 8.0
Pr CC latest update (todays date: 19 dec 13)
I hope someone is able to fix it.

Hi frbra1,
The reason why you are getting this prompt is just beacause the files that are saved on your scratch disk while working on MAC have location "/Volume/name of the HD/program or file name", but when you connect that drive to windows the location changes to "Drive Name:\" . So. it is the adressing issue of the drive that you are facing with the drives. It is alo not always necessary that the drives get same name when they are attached to the machine.
Regards,
Vinay

Can't change Scratch disk is PS CS5.1

I can't change the scratch disk in PS on my Mac Pro. I hold down keys cmd, option, and shift to get Photoshop to allow me to dump prefs. I then go into Preferences and change the scratch disk another internal hd. I close PS, but it won't re-open unless I hold down the keys above. When I do get it open again the checkmark for the scratch drive is back where it was.
Any suggestions?

No idea what the problem is but this is always a good starting point:-
http://www.fcpbook.com/Misc1.html

Final Cut Pro Documents folder reappears after changing scratch disk.

After attempting to reorganize and cleanup my hard drive, I have come across the reason why I have such a random system to begin with. A while back I had the same problem, but chose to let it lie instead of fixing it. So now I'm asking for help.
I've tried to make a new folder in which all the documents, caches, and items having to do with Final Cut Studio 2 are placed, instead of having some applications' files here and others' there. But my problem is that even after changing my scratch disk location and my waveform/thumbnail/autosave locations to the new folder, every time I open up Final Cut Pro, it creates the "Final Cut Pro Documents" folder once again.
Will I have to rebase my whole organizational scheme around this stubborn issue?
Thanks for any suggestions.
*I am running Final Cut Studio 2 (Final Cut Pro 6.0.6).

Well, I'm really trying to simply recreate this file under another name, "Final Cut Pro," instead of "Final Cut Pro Documents," and therein lies the problem, because it creates this folder by default. Right now I've got everything saving to my "Final Cut Pro" folder as my scratch disk location, and a blank "Final Cut Pro Documents" folder that I want to delete.
Thanks for the reply.

Work stoppage because of scratch disk error. The torture continues! Please help!

Hi, everyone:
I would greatly appreciate help.
In December, I began receiving the error message Could not initialize Photoshop because the scratch disks are full. I deleted all the large files from my hard drive, and the problem went away.
Now, I am working on a large Photoshop file (i.e., 585,155kb). I am working at 300 ppi for print reproduction, using multiple layers. I am opening each new image to be added to the master document in a separate Photoshop window. I set the resolution of each at 300 ppi, then crop and transfer to its new layer in the master file (using drag and drop). After I crop and transfer, I close the open window of the file I just cropped and transferred. No other programs are running. This seems to be fairly standard stuff.
All was fine (although very slow) until two nights ago. When cropping, I received the error Could not complete your request because the scratch disks are full.
Once again, I researched scratch disk error messages, and I came to the conclusion I had no choice but to increase my RAM. So, I upgraded from 512MB to 2 GIG. (I successfully opened my PC and installed the RAM myself, confirming it on the Properties window. A major success, as the RAM was costly, and difficult to find, so I saved some money and time by installing it myself!)
With great enthusiasm and excitement, I opened the master Photoshop file again and the next image to be set to 300 ppi, cropped, and transferred over to a layer. But, when I tried to crop, I received the SAME sickening message, Could not complete your request because the scratch disks are full.
How can this be? I have four times the RAM I had before, which was costly, and I expected Photoshop to work swift and smooth with this new, more efficient increase in RAM. I am simply bewildered.
I tried changing my Scratch Disks to C: rather than Startup, but then I received the error message You currently have Adobe Photoshops primary Scratch and Windows primary paging file on the same volume, which can result in reduced performance. It is recommended that you set Adobe Photoshops primary Scratch volume to be on a different volume, preferably on a different physical drive.
More scratch disk torture.
None of this makes any sense, and, while Photoshop error messages are upsetting, they dont explain what you should do. I am not a programmer, and I am totally stumped.
I know that someone somewhere upgraded their RAM and still received a Scratch disk error too, so I hope someone can advise me on what I need to do next. I cannot continue my work and just spent a lot of money on RAM.
Thank you!

Hi, everyone: Thank you for your help with my problem. I appreciate everyones time and feedback, as well as the openness to help and explain (and further explain) what I do not fully understand. I learned a lot more, as Photoshop always introduces new things to learn and figure out. (One has to be part programmer to make PS work!) I appreciated the clear instructions and simple analogies too (for example, the head vs. suitcase was great).
Good news: The Scratch disk error has subsided for now!
I believe (although I am not certain) that the problem was something very simple after all, and I am embarassed. Only time will tell if this was really the culprit, for, if the Scratch disk error reappears later, it may be something else all together that is lurking in the background.
For now, it seems to have been a problem that Peter K.s advice helped me discover...
Peter's advice was to check the crop settings in the option bar for the common mistake of specifying pixels/cm rather than pixels/inch. My setting was correct (pixels/inch). However, I inadvertently used my pixel width number as inches in the Width setting, causing a MUCH bigger file than intended. When I changed the number, the Scratch disk error disappeared, putting me back in business! Thanks, Peter, for pointing me the direction that eventually revealed the problem.
Could it be this simple?
I kept working most of the night to test drive, free of the Scratch disk error for now! I hope the good fortune continues.
The lesson for others may be to check simple settings carefully first, before diving into the deep end of Photoshop.
Meanwhile, the new RAM is speeding up Photoshop considerably, so I feel like it was a good investment and will probably help safeguard against further Scratch disk errors, which I have had in the past. Also, Ive taken everyones advice to consider a dedicated, separate HD for Photoshop Scratch disk use. Ill plan that as a future/next investment. However, technical notes say an external HD isnt a good idea, but I dont have capacity for an internal HD, so it will have to be an external one. I would appreciate any words of wisdom here. Also, I still have to research SATA-II drives too (which are new to me) and ascertain if I can utilize one on my system. It may simply be too old for this technology, if it is new?
If interested, I also tried several things:
(1) Checking the space available on my HD again The pie chart indicated it was approximately half full (there was 46% free space, or 34.38 GB free space). I'll look for more to remove, but it seems reasonable to have 46 percent available, I think.
(2) Checking the need to DEFRAG The Analyzer said a DEFRAG was not needed, and, indeed, the color chart that plotted the files showed only a thin red line or two (red indicates fragmentation).
(3) Searching for more TEMP files to delete. I found 750 MB in TEMP files to delete, so, while not a lot, there were some still there. Previously I followed these directions to safely delete temporary Internet files: Ctrl Panel > Internet Options > General > Delete Files > Delete all offline content. But, when I navigated to C:\Windows\Temp, sure enough, I found more. Directly opening C:\Windows\Temp seems to be more effective. (I have done it that way in the past too, but lately I was trying to follow the "safe" way I had stumbled across recently.)
(4) Checking my Photoshop Memory Allocation, which was already set at 85% (which may be too high, so I may back it down later, but I did not change it for now). I remembered adjusting it some time ago, but I had forgotten by how much!
I also read the links that everyone recommended, as well as numerous other documents I found across the Web. Some introduced still more to learn/understand, of course.
Thank you once again. Ill resurrect or repost if the Scratch disk error haunts me again later, but, for now, a happy ending.

*Noob* Which of these would I use for a scratch disk? How much Ram?

Hello, I am fairly new to Photoshop as I have used Lightroom ever since I've been a photographer. I recently got into Photoshop with the cloud as well as layering multiple exposures together. I never KNEW anything about scratch disk, until yesterday.
First let me stress, please answer my questions in layman's terms. I search the net before I start a topic on a forum and I read a lot of answers that seem to be responding to people who have a general idea of what is already going on. Remember, I DO NOT. Here are my questions:
A:If the scratch disk acts like RAM, do I need to allow it to use any of my ram at all? If so, how much? I have two Macbook Pro's, they are the highest model Apple makes, both have SSD drives, Quad Core i7's, etc. I unchecked my Macbook hard drive and told it to use an external SSD drive that is plugged in via USB 3.0. Would it be better to use an HDD instead of SDD? I have lots of hard drives to choose from due to being a music producer.
B:When I exit the program does it delete all the data it created? This question is two fold, does it delete it regardless if I saved the project or not? If I save the project does it stay there? What if I delete the original photo, was the photo imported into photoshop upon camera raw?
C: Like question A, how much ram do I choose? I have 16GB of Ram in each of my MacBooks.

OK, I have now copied your hillbilly text and pasted it into a text editor to change the typeface so I can read it.
I'll try to address the lose ends here.
A:…I have two Macbook Pro's, they are the highest model Apple makes…
Please forgive me for not being impressed. I just happen to consider any laptop a sub-optimal choice for Photoshop photography work. My personal opinion. (Please don't ask me why.)
, both have SSD drives,… I unchecked my Macbook hard drive and told it to use an external SSD drive that is plugged in via USB 3.0. Would it be better to use an HDD instead of SDD?…
I assume you are talking about using the external drive as your primary scratch disk, not as your boot disk. That is the appropriate thing to do. HD or SSD will both do the job fine, as long as they're physically separate, dedicated Photoshop scratch disks.
Obviously the internal drive will be your boot disk. Adobe applications really like to reside on the boot disk, the drive where the OS resides.
B:When I exit the program does it delete all the data it created?
This question is two fold, does it delete it regardless if I saved the project or not?
If I save the project does it stay there? What if I delete the original photo, was the photo imported into photoshop upon camera raw?
NOTHING is ever imported into Photoshop, ever. You use Photoshop to open your files exactly where you put them in the Apple Finder. And you save them wherever you wish, in the Finder as well. Your images will always reside in the Finder.
You don't import files into Adobe Camera Raw either. You open them in or with ACR.
Of course you need to save your data, not only when you quit the application, but at frequent intervals while you're working on it. Nothing you saved will be deleted by Photoshop. How can you even conceive and ask such a question? ?? !
If you ever try to close a file or the application when you have open, unsaved files, the application will ask you for confirmation in an unmistakable way.
Your images will always reside in the Finder, wherever you put them.
Photoshop does not have the abominable "Libraries" scheme that made me detest Lightroom when I tried it. Nor does Photoshop hide your image files in "packages" like the even more abominable iPhoto does.
Please forget anything you may be accustomed to in Lightroom and/or iPhoto, and approach Photoshop with a fresh mind, respecting it like the granddaddy of image editors it is.
C: Like question A, how much ram do I choose? I have 16GB of Ram in each of my MacBooks.
Again, you don't "choose RAM", instead you select a percentage of dynamically changing Available Memory (not RAM; see above) to allow Photoshop to use. Leave at around 70%.
Please see the following post for an important tip.

Scratch disk selection not sticking

I'm in Illustrator CS4 on my Mac Pro. I'm trying to set my primary scratch disk to my internal RAID disk, secondary to my Main.
I make the selections in Prefs and get that 900 year old icon telling me that changes will take effect after I restart Illustrator. So I dutifully restart Illustrator. When I look at my Prefs again, my selections are gone. Anyone know how to get these to actually work?

Trashing prefs did it. Yesssssssss.
Unfortunately every article about and mention of trashing prefs seems to leave out the crucial *how*, which I eventually figured out and posted to: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2133838#2133838
Adobe would do well to include this level of detail in their unweildy help/support.
And to use a less infuriating text editor for comment editing.
Thanks all!

What are the consequences of changing the scratch disc??

What are the consequences of changing the scratch disk? Everything was fine with my project until I tried to work on a new project for someone else. I uploaded new footage to a new session and changed the scratch disk to my other external hard drive. Now there is confusion with my initial project..

This is something we all live with. You have to be careful going back and forth between projects, if you are using different scratch disks for each. If you are editing a project on one scratch disk, then start a new project on another, remember to switch back to the original scratch disk when you go back to the original project. Otherwise render files will wind up on the wrong drive, or worse, you will capture to the wrong drive. Each issue is correctable by managing your media over to the proper drive, and deleting then deleting from the other.

Error when launching Photoshop - cannot modify scratch disk preferences

Hi all,
I recently installed photoshop CS5. When launching it I get the following error:
'Could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available'.
I went on this forum and found out several threads relevant to that issue. I did the following to try to fix the problem:
Did a clean uninstall of CS5, made sure no file pertaining to CS5 were remaining
Reinstalled CS5
As the problem was still occuring I did the following (as hinted in the threads)
I reset the photoshop preferences according to http://forums.adobe.com/thread/370735?tstart=0
I modified the setting of the drive HD (read & write everywhere, share folder checked)
I then tried to change the scratch disk preferences (launch photoshop then click Option+Command+Shift)I can select my disk but the selection does next time I try it is still the same (c.f. screen shot): first = startup, second = none, etc.)
I would really appreciate if someone could help me on this one.
Thank in advance,
Francis

I have one drive, but the point is rather that when I select it (=macintosh HD), it is still Startup that appears in the menu as depicted above on the next launch.

Adobe Photoshop Scratch Disk Full/Startup Disk Full error - PLEASE HELP

Dear ALL,
I have started to notice recently that when I run Photoshop CS on my Mac OSX Tiger, I am getting the Startup Disk Full error message. Never happended before.
Since my initial post I downloaded Macaroni (utility) and have run the daily/weekly/monthly backups, checked the /private/var/vm and /private/var/log and /Volumes. Nothing unusual there...
When I started getting this error I had 32GB left on a looked at my HD and I seem to have 32GB available on a 152GB drive. Now after deleting I have 76GB capacity left.
But when I tried to open a Photoshop PSD or TIFF file and do a crop I still get tge Startup Disk is Full error followed by the Adobe Photoshop error Scratch Disk is Full.
I am thinking of running the Disk Utility from the Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and doing a Verify Disk and Verify Disk Permissions followed by Repair Disk Permissions. I will be logged into the machine whilst doing this. Is there any danger in this as I have read elsewhere that I need to do this from a bootable volume. If that is the case how do I create a bootable disk/cd? If not then what is the cure to my Disk Full as surely there is now nearly 50% FREE!!!!!
Please help.
Max

PS will always use the boot disk for scratch to some extent even with an alternate primary scratch disk.
Be sure to turn off Spotlight as it causes problems.
4GB of RAM would be nice, I understand small files don't work well if there is more than 4GB RAM but large files will. OS X uses free RAM as cache and RAM disk before using disk drives.
How much RAM is allocated to PS? More RAM would help.
A dedicated lean boot drive helps. Install just what is needed for your work, use a separate drive for data, and yet another RAID volume for scratch.
When in doubt, backup with SuperDuper, and do an erase and then restore. Always backup before repairing; and never, ever, use an old version of Tiger CD/DVD - like 10.4.2 on 10.4.7/.8. Use "fsck" instead, or your emergency boot drive.
Also, give Applejack a shot and delete the cache folders and swap files from time to time to keep a system humming. CS/CS2 and Tiger benefit nicely from more RAM.

Multiple Projects & Scratch Disks?

When having multiple projects on the go at the same time, how does one seperate scratch disks so all projects save the relevant info to the correct folders without having to change the scratch disk every time I go to a new project?
Hoping this question makes sense and thanks in advance as always.
Ali
G5 Imac Mac OS X (10.4.6)

You can't, but each project has its own folder in the
capture scratch.
Many thanks Tom.

Change primary scratch disk?

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