Could not initialize Photoshop because disk not available

And it wont let me re-install PS. It seems to think it's already installed, which it is.
This is CS3.

Hi, Buko--
You mean "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp" or the whole Settings folder?

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Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available

I get this message when I try to startup Photoshop:
"Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available."
I found a fix in Tech Notes about selecting the scratch disk and choosing ignore permissions, but I don't even remember what the scratch disk was, so I don't really know how to select ignore permissions on it.
Does anyone know another way to fix this. It seems like this must be some "login-local" preference (meaning that there must be something in the user's local preferences for setting this scratch disk parameter (the only reason I'm thinking this is that if I create another user and run Photoshop, I get no error.)
I looked through ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe for any kind of Photoshop Preference, but I couldn't find a specific preference that stood out. Anyone have an idea?

I just got the same message, "Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available". I had just assigned my primary scratch disk to an internal drive that was empty and had lots of free space. When I restarted my machine, the error message appeared when I tried to open Photoshop.
Not sure why this error occurred, but deleting the preferences did fix that problem... unfortunately, doing that will reset all your prefs = pallets, brushes, actions. I suspect you could just delete the "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Prefs.psp" file and leave the others intact to avoid that.
I would still like to know why changing the scratch disk gives us this problem? I mean, isn't that the whole point of having another internal drive?
- JA

"Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is nor available"

I'm trying to install Photoshop CS4 for the very first time onto a Mac Powerbook G4, MacOS 10.4.11. The installation succeeded, but when I launch Photoshop CS4, I get the "Could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available" error followed by the "Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is nor available" error. There is only one disk in the Powerbook, at it has 27GB free space.
The FAQ advice is to reset preferences. I did that repeatedly by holding down cmd-option-shift while starting up Photoshop and answering "yes" when it asks to delete the preference file. Didn't help. Same errors occur.
I also deleted the ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CS4 Settings and ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe folder hierarchies. Didn't help. I did the above together. Didn't help. Same errors occur.
I uninstalled Photoshop and reinstalled it. Didn't help. Still get the same errors.
I even deleted the root /Library/Application Support/Adobe/ folder tree, which then forced another complete reinstallation of Photoshop CS4 because that killed the license manager. Didn't help. Still get the same errors.
Where else could preferences be lurking? I've never been able to successfully launch Photoshop CS4 on this Mac, so I guess it must be trying to import something weird from another Adobe application.

naturalturn wrote:
There is only one disk in the Powerbook, at it has 27GB free space.
First thing that comes to mind is the lack of free hard drive space. Photoshop writes scratch from the beginning when you open it up. If there is not enough room or no scratch disk then Photoshop will not start up. The OS is using the same free space for writing SWAP files.
Also CS4 is not supported on a G4.
The only solution I can think is to delete some unneeded files and see if opening up some free space will solve the problem.

"Could not initialize photoshop because scratch disks are full."

"Could not initialize photoshop because scratch disks are full." This is the error message that pops up when I try to open my Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I just installed this program on my new HP Pavilion Model h8-1214, which has 1.8 TB of space with 10.0 GB of RAM. I have read forums on this problem, but they tell how to fix the problem through Photoshop. How do I fix the scratch disk settings without being able to open Photoshop? Please help me with this problem for the Adobe Support team will not even answer my question..
Thanks.

By far the easiest solution is to upgrade to photoshop elements 10 or newer, which has no problems with big hard drives and has some new features you may like.
It's available for a thirty day trial.
Actually versions pse 3 and later have no problems with large hard drives.
Here are a couple things you can try which might work:
Option 1: Just after double clicking on the pse 2 shortcut press the Ctrl+Alt keys and keep holding the keys until you get the scratch disk preferences dialog
then choose your recovery partition as the First. This would only work if you have a recovery partition or another smaller hard drive installed that you can use as the scratch disk.
(i don't have a recovery partition on this computer)
Option 2. Shrink (shrink volume) your present hard drive down to 1 tb
Option 3: If you have windows 7 pro or ultimate you can use virtual xp (downloaded from microsoft)

Could not initialize Photoshop because the file is locked

I have the problem where you get the Could not initialize Photoshop because the file is locked, where the solution was to fix the properties in the jpg. I did that and tried the Ctrl-Alt-Shft thing too. I pressed them in time and got the message to delete the settings. When I click yes, I still get the "file locked" message. If it is the scratch disk setting problem, I can't get PS open to change it. This problem started when I was opening a locked jpg from a relative. (Now none of my previous pics will open either). Any other ideas other than these that are already listed in the forums? Thanks for any help.
Technical: Windows XP 5.1, HP7680, Photoshop CS2, 2g ram, more than enough work drives. (no Vista)
Sequence of events: 1) recd a jpg from a relative in an email and saved it to hard drive. 2) with Photoshop unopened, I rt clkd on the jpg and chose "open with CS2". 3) PS started loading and then stopped with the "file locked" msg. Clkd on OK and PS closed. 4) tried to open PS from the shortcut (and from explorer) and got same result. 5) researched the problem and then used the Ctrl-Alt-Shft approach, got the window that asks to "delete settings" and chose ok, PS closed again. 6) went to the jpg and displayed properties and saw "This file came from another computer and might be locked....", so I clicked "unblock". 7) retried step 2, then 4 with same results. 7) tried to open an old jpg with step 2 and same result (got file locked msg). 8) no longer can bring up the "delete settings" window with the the Ctrl-Alt-Shft approach as it looks like it deleted the settings the 1st time.
Any ideas???? Thanks again.

Bob,
I do not know why a locked JPG would mess up PS. I could see if you always tried to launch PS, by dbl-clicking on the JPG in Windows Explorer, but not from your Desktop shortcut, or from the PS.exe file.
For the locked file, there is a freeware utility, Unlocker. I do not have a URL handy, but Google should find it for you. It has worked on some network assets, that seemed to lock up on me.
Good luck, though this might not address your PS launch issue.
Hunt

Could not initialize Photoshop because the file is empty.

I tried to start Photoshop 5.1 64bit today, and it shows the blue intro screen with the reading and loading, and then it goes to a popup error message that reads, "Could not initialize Photoshop because the file is empty." I can run the 32bit version fine, but I would prefer to use the 64bit version. I am running Windows 64bit Ultimate. I have been having issues here and there with CS5.5 on this computer. I ran CS4 fine for the last few years, but since after the upgrade, things have been acting weird. About two weeks ago, InDesign refused to work, so I did a reinstall. Then, two days later, I was having other issues, so I did another reinstall. Before that, Illustrator was having issues, so I had to copy programs files from my office computer to my home computer to make it work. I am starting to wonder if my hard drive is going out. Is there an Adobe fix for just Photoshop? I have the CS5.5 installation DVDs here. I tried copying the Photoshop.exe from my office computer to my home computer and replacing it, but it didn't work either.
What do you guys recommend? Thanks!

I am starting to wonder if my hard drive is going out.
Not necessarily, but it could be hopelessly fragmented and have per-sector damage. Run your disk maintenance tools from the drive's property tab and clean out unnecessary temp files, too.
Mylenium

Could not initialize photoshop, because the file name was not valid

Hello,
my friend (not very good with computers) asked me to fix his Photoshop 8, because "it just stopped working one day". When I try to run it, I see splash screen, initializing photoshop, something about TWAIN, and then:
Could not initialize Photoshop, because the file name was not valid
followed by crashing the Photoshop. I tried reinstalling Photoshop, resetting user preferences, even deleting all user settings from Documents and Settings folder, but nothing - I keep getting this error. I tried plugging in his camera, usb flash disks, because I thought Photoshop may created scratch file or something in there - but it didnt work.
So I decided to install him my copy of Photoshop CS3, just to make sure its some bug in Photoshop 8, but I didnt believe my eyes - after installing, im getting the exact error again.
And now Im completely lost - I was unable to google the error message, looks like Im the first person ever who happened to see it.
His computer is about two years old, 2 GHz cpu, 512 MB RAM, some decent video card, 100 GB space left on disks, operating system is Win XP SP2.
I would really appreciate any help, thank you in advance
Peter

>Yes, many times.
:) never hurts to ask!
also have you tried creating a new user with admin rights to see if it's an id issue? (sorry, there's several similar theads going on and i sometimes forget what i've read where.) there was just a guy yesterday that solved a similar problem by creating a new id. we could never tell what the problem was with the old one...

Could not initialize photoshop because of a problem using the adobe color engine (Win 7)

Was running the lastest version of Photoshop CS5 and added a second quad graphics card and 4 more monitors. Now PS will not start and I get the error message "could not initialize photoshop because of a problem using the adobe color engine."
Computer has 2 NIVDIA Quadro4 NVS420 graphics boards with 8 Samsung SyncMaster 1920x1080 monitors. If I disable 4 of the monitors CS5 starts normally. I do not have to remove the added graphics card. When I extend the desktop again to all 8 monitors I get the error above.
How do I trouble-shoot the problem? Is it Photoshop, NIVDIA or Windows 7?

Well, not exactly a full solution yet (at least for my setup), but I am certain now that this issue is (mostly) caused by nVidia's drivers. You may be able to fix your setup by simply installing the latest drivers for your NVS420 cards (266.45 for Win 7/64 rel. 01/12/2011).
Since you are using two identical cards, this could do the trick.
Caveats - Make sure you:
1. Select Custom Install, the Express Install will most likely not work properly.
2. Unselect the Audio Driver (if available), the nVidia HD(MI) Audio driver could
screw up your speech recognition (if you use it) or other audio software - it did for me.
3. Select Clean Install. If you don't, files like C:\Windows\System32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
and several other driver related files will not be overwritten, causing all sorts of neat effects.
4. After the Install is complete, reboot your system whether the Installer prompts you or not.
After testing various configurations, disabling two - six of my eight monitors I am at this point:
I am now using nVidia's lastest and greatest piece of crap (read driver), version 266.58, released just two days ago. After an initial snag with maximized windows extending to the bottom of the main monitor (underneath the taskbar), a re-install & reboot solved that issue.
All three driver versions tested (260.89, 260.99, 266.58) now allow me to start PhotoShop without any problems; providing I first disable the two monitors fed by my onboard graphics (nVidia 780a based), leaving me with six monitors connected to three GTS-450 cards. I can even re-enable the two other monitors once the program is open, and it continues to work fine. However, I must disconnect them again for the next start of PhotoShop.
On an interesting side note:
After disabling six monitors (leaving only two on a GTS-450), I was also able to open and run SoundBooth CS5, which previously would not open, citing the audio driver as the problem. After sucessfully starting SoundBooth I could re-enable all six other monitors (incl. onboards),
and that program now opens and works fine with all 8 monitors connected. [ODD !!!]
Other than Adobe Software, I've had only one other issue with my setup:
When playing online poker at PokerStars, occasionally and quite randomly one of multiple tables would freeze up. I'll try disabling the two onboard monitors for that program as well to see whether the random freezes stop.
Overall, while I think that Adobe produces fine software and nVidia has been in need of an overhaul for quite some time now, I also think that Adobe and nVidia software engineers need to work more closely together to ensure that problems like this don't arise in the first place after a product has been released to the public. IMHO, this is avoidable!
PS:
Here's a link to a great tool for multiple monitors, Display Fusion by Binary Fortress.
I use the free version, it allows you to do cool things like have individual wallpapers for all
your monitors, or stretch a single image across all monitors. With the Pro Version ($25),
you can also add individually customizable taskbars to each monitor, and a lot more.
http://www.displayfusion.com/

CS6 Photoshop reads this when attempting to "Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted). HELP!

Finally got a call this morning from an Adobe Rep and he explained to me the issue. He explained that I needed to uninstall the adobe product, in this case Photoshop CS6 and download it again and reinstall it! So, I did that and get the same message when attempting to open the newly downloaded software: "Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted). Please, if someone could help me as soon as possible! I am very anxious to remedy this situation. Thank you!

This seems to have cropped up a lot recently. What has seemed to work so far is intentionally resetting your preferences:
Reset Preferences
1) Close the program and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Win)/Cmd+Option+Shift (Mac) during startup (not reversible)
or
2) Move the Folder. See:
http://www.bugge.com/Family-and-friends/Illy/illy.html
--OB

Adobe Photoshop CS6 won't load on my macbook pro, says "Could not initialize Photoshop because the file was invalid (it has been deleted).

Adobe Photoshop CS6 won't load on my macbook pro, says "Could not initialize Photoshop because the file was invalid (it has been deleted).

Tried the preferences, they are not there, tried uninstalling and reinstalling, no love! Any help?

CS2/W8 - Could not initialize photoshop because the file is locked

I just upgraded to Windows 8 64 bit last night. I had been running Cs2 just fine on Windows 7 64 bit for a few years now. In fact I used it last week. Now after the upgrade is complete, I get this error message when I try to launch CS2:
Could not initialize photoshop because the file is locked. use the properties command in the Windows Explorer to unlock the file.
Of course, there is no mention of which file is locked.
I tried a repair install, it didnt help, same error.

HAve you tried resetting preferences? Start PS and IMMEDIATELY hold down the shift ctrl alt keys. Should get a reset window if fast enough.

Could not initialize Photoshop because of a program error" with PS CC 2014

I get "Could not initialize Photoshop because of a program error" with PS CC 2014 on a 2099 Macbook Pro running Mavericks. Then the program closes. Can anyone help?

Could be corrupt preferences, a problem with the OS font cache, or some other problem with the OS.
First, try resetting the preferences.

I can't start CS6 I get this error message "Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted)." What do I do now??

When I try to start CS6 I get this error message "Could not initialize Photoshop because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted)." What do I do now??

Please refer:
FAQ: How do I reset my preferences?
Regards,
Ashutosh

After a forced computer shutdown, OS X 10.9.5, I have received this message, PS could not initialize Photoshop because the preference file was invalid (it has been deleted).

After a forced computer shutdown, OS X 10.9.5, I have received this message, PS could not initialize Photoshop because the preference file was invalid (it has been deleted).

One idea is to hold down the cmd-opt-shift keys and start Photoshop. It will ask you if you want to delete the settings file. Answer "Yes" and it will create a new Preferences files. Photoshop should continue to load.
Gene

Am unable start Photoshop (CS5.1 Extended version), it gives me this message: Could not initialize Photoshop, because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted). Please help, thanks.

Dear Friends or anybody, please help.
Am unable start Photoshop (CS5.1 Extended version), it gives me this message:
Could not initialize Photoshop, because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted).
I have also watched the video on “restoring peferences” trouble shooting above, but got nowhere.
Please help me, am leaving Canada on a business trip to China in 36 hours and I need to work using Photoshop. Thank you.
Benny

Check these solutions here Re: Preferences File was invalid.
Gene

Could not initialize Photoshop because disk not available

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