CS4, CS5, Scratch Disk and Prefs

I am on OSX10.6.8 with CS4 and CS5 (some of my actions only run on CS4, so I quit and launch back and forth).
I had my CS 4 and 5 Scratch Prefs set to a specific scratch partition on another local disk where I had a small partition dedicated towards it. I was doing some disk maintanance on that other disk and forget to go into CS and reset the scratch to the start-up disk. Now I cannot open CS4 or CS5 because it is looking for a scratch disk that does not exist.
Is a complete re-install the only fix, or is there a command line or other way other way than a complete re-install?

Resetting Photoshop Preferences will fix this issue. Follow the instructions outlined here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375776
If you have larger troubles, hold down Alt, Ctrl, and Shift keys (Mac: Command, Option, Shift) while starting up Photoshop. A dialog box will appear asking if you wish to delete the preferences/settings file.

Similar Messages

Cs4 64bit scratch disk

I am trying to determine if a dedicated scratch disk is still needed if using win7 and cs4 64 bit version. My work involves mostly 2D design, but some images can be quite large. The following statements seem to indicate that if you have enough ram then the scratch disk will not be used. If this is the case, then would a single SSD be viable?
I have been able to find some info regarding this but no definate answer. In kb404439 it states
Using 64-bit Photoshop. If you use files large enough to need more than
4 GB of RAM, and you have enough RAM, all the processing you perform on
your large images can be done in RAM, instead of swapping out to the
hard disk.
This article was in reference to CS2- Document 320005
Each history state that includes an operation that affects the entire
image (for example, when you apply Gaussian blur or unsharp mask to the
entire image) creates a full copy of your image at its original size.
If your initial image is 500 KB, and you apply Gaussian blur to it,
your image will need 1 MB of scratch space

This is just me thinking and adding my 2 cents worth. SSD will not have a spinning disk with read/write heads trying to write to a scratch disk and virtual memory at the same time. The reason a second internal hard drive is recommended is to give the scratch disk its own hard drive thus its own read/write heads. SSD does not care about all that. As long as a SSD is purchased with TRIM then I would see no need for a seperate SSD drive. Now in the real world would a second internal SSD drive, dedicated to the scratch disk, speed things up (would be interesting to see if true)? I have seen no tests done on that. But even with enough RAM the check box for Scratch Disk still will be checked no matter what by software default even if a SSD is used.

Scratch disks and RAM usage

i would like to understand the relationship between scratch disks and RAM usage in Photoshop.
While i was working on a fairly big psb file (2gb), photoshop kept prompting that I was out of memory, but in fact the utilization was only 75% (i had 16gbs total, photoshop was only using 7gb, and i allowed PS to use up to 14gb in total). when it says out of memory, it was actually my scratch disk at fault ( i only set 1 scratch disk, which was my 120gb SSD running out of space).
any idea how I can optimize PS to use up all my RAM first before even touching my scratch disk? (short of using a RAMdisk, please).
thanks!

I am curious about this also. I just reinstalled W-7--have 11 G of physical memory--a ton of hard drive empty space also, and I have been wondering why PS_CC is so slow--since basically I have only put my Security and Browser in addition to Adobe back on the Dell XPS computer..... At least now it does show the downloading percentage (like .psd file) , but that must be what is happening. I do think that some of these "frozen" screens I have been experiencing, was because the program was using scratch disk, instead of the Ram... I came up from CS-5, and can't describe it in detail, but just realize how slow PS-CC is in most everything. Going back and see if reallocating will help...

Question about Photoshop scratch disk and specific setup

Hi Folks
Thanks for the help in advance.
I'm a novice and need help finding a solution to a new PC Build. (Windows 7 Pro 64bit with Photoshop CS6)
I only recently found out about having a scratch disk dedicated for photoshop (very novice i know ), and was wondering if a 120-128GB SSD would be enough? (Please bear in mind I can't fit large SSD raid configs to my budget, plus I live in New Zealand, so prices are higher for SSD at the moment).
I only edit single camera RAW files at a time around 25mb per file, with no large amount of layers and very rarely do large images i.e. Panorama etc. I have searched the forums but could not find a concrete answer.
My setup was originally meant for a HTPC (I don't intend to overclock), but I will also be using it for light photography projects. Specs below:
CPU: Intel i7 3770
Mobo: Asrock B75 Pro3-M (or Asus P8H77m Pro, depending on budget)
16gb Ram (maybe bump up to 32gb later)
120-128gb SSD for OS and apps
120-128gb SSD scratch disk
2 TB HDD for storage
If anyone knows, the motherboards I've listed have 3x Sata3 ports, Asrock has one Intel chip and two Asmedia controlled Sata3 ports, while Asus has 2x Intel controlled and 1x Marvell controlled Sata3 port. If I went with the Asrock, would it be okay to connect the OS/Apps SSD to the intel controlled sata3 port and have the scratch disk and storage HDD to the Asmedia sata3 ports?
And one more novice question, when I begin to edit my images, is it best to transfer my photos from memory card to storage HDD then work from there? Or would it be quicker opening images direct from a USB 3.0 card reader / USB 3.0 external hard drive?
Thanks again everyone, really appreciate it

priddye wrote:
Just to clarify, if/when I get one 256gb SSD for my main C: drive, I can load the OS/Apps and store some data for the time being (until I get another SSD) and use the 2TB HDD for scratch disk only?
Yes, that's what I meant. You could try putting Photoshop scratch on C: at least temporarily, and watch your free space carefully. If you don't work on big documents or set your history states to be very large, it might be workable. But be careful. The safe "set it and forget it" configuration is to make your HDD the one and only Photoshop scratch drive.
When I do get around to getting the second 256gb, I will look at installing the two SSD's in RAID configuration. If i were to do this, can I load the OS/Apps to the RAID SSD's as well as using them for scratch disks and have the 2TB HDD for storage? I hope that makes sense.
Sounds about right; with 512GB on tap you should be able to run just about everything from C:, as long as you don't keep your entire photo library on there. Realistically, on a big system that's got a lot of apps installed and has been used for some time, Windows and your apps may end up consuming 100 to 150 GB, so that would still leave you a lot of breathing room.
Keep in mind that what you describe may require 3rd party re-partitioning software and/or backup and restoral, or a complete reinstallation of Windows and everything (usually the latter is what is recommended when moving up to a RAID system volume).
By the way, SSDs stay in best working order if you overprovision - i.e., maintain a fair amount of free space. The internal controllers need the free space to keep the data organized well and maintain top performance.
-Noel

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.

What's the Best Photoshop CS5 Scratch Disk Setup for New MacPro 12 Core?

Hello all...
I'm awaiting delivery of a new MacPro 12 Core with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD drive (Bay1) + 2TB (Bay2) + 2TB (Bay3). Normally I would partition about 60GB of one of the 2TB drives to make an exclusive scratch disk for Photoshop to ensure optimum performance.... with the new spec MacPro and especially the new 512GB SSD, do I still need to do this..?
Any suggestions of comments most welcome... as I want to try to get my new machine set up as best I can before I start copying over my existing data and filling hard drives etc. Photoshop CS5 and Quark Express 8 are my two core apps that I use daily.
Regards,
Anthony MacCarthy
Irish MacUser and MacAddict

ScarCrow 28 wrote:
…Well yes, technically you've got me on that I will admit. I'll try to rephrase to be a bit more accurate. The best scratch disk is one you don't need to rely on performance wise, by having enough RAM to handle the data performance needy tasks that would otherwise be sent to the scratch disk, when enough RAM can't be accessed by Photoshop…
…Hows that?
Still wrong, alas.
The scratch disk is used always.
See this very short (two-message) thread:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2847996#2847996
Excerpt:
[Chris Cox writes:]
…Photoshop needs to allocate scratch space for data, in case it needs to
write that data to disk later -- otherwise you would randomly fail with
"out of scratch space" in the MIDDLE of an operation…
Furthermore, Photoshop sets the size of the scratch disk ahead of time—the instant you open an image file or create a new document—basing it on assumptions the application makes taking into account your usual, past workflow practices, your settings and the pixel dimensions of the document.
Bottom line: the scratch disk always plays a part.
Do a forum search filtering the options with Chris Cox in the "Who" box, "scratch" as key word, and Photoshop Macintosh as the forum. You'll find some enlightening reading. Examples:
http://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?q=scratch&resultTypes=MESSAGE&resultTypes=COMMUNITY&pe opleEnabled=true&dateRange=all&communityID=3341&username=Chris+Cox&numResults=15&rankBy=10 001
I'm not just insisting on arguing; I honestly want you and others to have a better Photoshop experience. Really.
Wo Tai Lao Le
我太老了

CS5 Scratch disk compression

Chris suggested the registry keys for CS5 for Windows 7 were available on the dvd or via a download.
I have searched my dvd and the Adobe site and cant find the registry key files for CS5 Photoshop on Windows 7. Can anyone please provide a link on the Adobe site to download these or if they are hidden in one of the on disk folders (no Goodies folder as in CS2) how I can find them. I would like to disable scratch disk compression in CS5 for Windows 7/64bit on my pc workstation.
Larry

Resetting Photoshop Preferences will fix this issue. Follow the instructions outlined here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/375776
If you have larger troubles, hold down Alt, Ctrl, and Shift keys (Mac: Command, Option, Shift) while starting up Photoshop. A dialog box will appear asking if you wish to delete the preferences/settings file.

Scratch disk and other setup questions

Hello, I am a long time Premiere user but have never been involved with the setup. I have decided to start doing personal video editing on my gaming computer and have run into some questions.
The biggest one I have is with the scratch disk setup. I've read the help doc about 10 times and googled every combination of terms I can think of but am still unsure how I should set these for my setup.
I have Premiere Pro CS5 installed on my C:, which is a 128 GB SSD
For storage I have 4 1TB drives in Raid 5, so 2.72 TB total storage.
How do I want to set up my scratch disks for best possible performance?
Question 2: This might be related to scratch disk setup, I'm not sure, but something I have always wondered. Which disk should I save my projects to in this configuration? Does it matter? Then, do I want to render my final video to that same folder or to another disk?
Question 3: I currently have a GTX 460 graphics card and am enjoying the benefits of CUDA acceleration. I have been looking at adding a second in SLI for gaming purposes, but have read that the Mercury Playback Engine is not compatible with SLI. Does this mean that it will still just work with one card and I will see no benefit in premiere, or that all CUDA acceration will cease?
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help.

Alright, so I have the hdd's in the case and am setting up where to place everything, but each of my drives is different, so I am hoping someone can suggest best practice on which drives should hold what. I can rearrange any drive to suit any purpose you guys would suggest, but here is what I currently have set up:
C: - 128 GB SATA III SSD
D: - 150 GB 10k VelociRaptor
E: - 250 GB Caviar Black
F: - 4x 1 TB Spinpoint F4 7200 RPM in RAID 5
Here is how I am currently planning on using these drives:
C: - OS, Programs
D: - Media, Projects
E: - Previews, Exports
F: - Pagefile, Media Cache
When I am finished with a project I move the exported file onto my media server, so that is why I set the export onto the smaller drive and media cache onto the RAID.
Does this look good or would you guys suggest a different orientation for better performance?
And one other question, this time regarding RAM. I currently have 6 GB of DDR3, 3 x 2 GB. I have been reading all about how moving up to 24 GB would be very beneficial, and since it really isn't all that expensive, I am planning on doing so. My question is that, I have watched the task manager while rendering and exporting my videos and I've only ever seen RAM usage hit 1.8 GB. I wondered why it didn't get close to using all 6, but didn't worry about it too much. But now that I am hearing 24 would be helpful, I am wondering if I have something set up wrong that is stopping Premiere from using all my RAM?
Thank you guys so much for the help.

Where am I able to find my CS5 scratch disk?

When I open a "new" project to create a logo, or whatever, It tells me that I am unable to do so cause my scratch disk is full. As well, it will NOT allow me to specify a back up scratch on my external hard drive for whatever reason (probably cause it's USB 2.0), it doesn't even show as being listed when I go to choose the scratch. Anyfrickingways, at this point, I'm just fed up, so what I'm wondering is this... Where and how can I find my scratch disk so that I can delete some files? I'm a newb, so any advice would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you.
D-Bag.

D-Bag, the default scratch disk is the drive that your OS is on.

External Drive Space, Scratch Disk and other things...

Hello,
I've been editing my first feature on FCP 5.1.4, I have an Intel Mac Pro.
All the footage (shot with a Panasonnic HVX200 using P2 Cards) is about 500GB and it's stored in two different T-Bites for safety, one of which I'm using for editing.
Since I started editing, I've made the mistake of changing the Scratc Disk a few times with the result that some of my Media Files are now stored in one T-Byte, and some in the other T-Byte.
I've tried to transfer all existing media files to both the terabytes so that, when my editor starts to really cut together the assembly I've been working on, he won't need both my external drives (like I do now) and, at the same time, I can continue to work on one of the drives.
The problem is that, although I haven't used any complicated effects or other things that would require a long rendering process- only some color correction here and there (to see how things look like) - right now, both my terabytes are practically full and I cannot transfer any media file anywhere because there is no space available.
I'm not sure if I've done something wrong but how much space do you need to edit 500GB of footage into a feature? And, most importantly, how would you organize the editing so that I can have my external drive to work on and my editor can do the same on another external drive and still have the safety of a back up? Are three or four terabytes necessary?
Have I made mistakes in the way I've been saving/storing the project?
I also have a second question:
How do I open a project made in FCP on an Intel-base MAC from a Power PC-based MAC? Is it possible?
I'll greatly apppreciate some hep with these issues.
Paula
Dual Core intel Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Paula Paula Paula...Man, you have edited yourself into a corner. I am not sure how to tell you to get out of it.
Are you saying that you have the original MXF files on one of these drives? or BOTH? and you are ALSO using them as Scratch Drives? What is going on here?
Here is what you NEED to do. And you might have to get another hard drive to manage this.
-Use one drive for the original CONTENTS and LASTCLIP stuff...the original camera masters. Have them in nice separate folders and on a shelf...in storage.
-Now...you want TWO sets of drives with the same media? So that you and your editor can have the same footage? OK...then you need to have a drive to copy and consolidate all the footage to. So that all of the captured media and render files are on one drive.
-Copy all of this stuff to another drive for the editor. JUST THE CAPTURED FOOTAGE. Keep the original MXF files on the shelf. The render files will differ after time, as he or you will render and those will be on that local drive only, but if you share projects then when you get a cut from the editor, all you have to do is render and you are fine.
HOW TO DO ALL OF THIS? Manage the media and copying and all that stuff...I can't help you there. I don't know how your drives are structured or what is where. This is something you'll have to figure out on your own. Thus the reason for the third drive...to be an intermediate place to work.
I'm not sure if I've done something wrong but how much space do you need to edit 500GB of footage into a feature?
What do you mean by that? How much space does 500GB take? 500GB. Like asking how long is an hour...an hour. 60 min. 500GB is 5000MB. What do you mean here?
If you want you to have footage, your editor to have footage and then there to be a back up, then you need 3 sets of drives...and another set for the MXF files.
Have I made mistakes in the way I've been saving/storing the project?
So far? Yes. Fixable? Yes. Take time? Yes.
How do I open a project made in FCP on an Intel-base MAC from a Power PC-based MAC? Is it possible?
Yes...as long as you both have EXACTLY the same version of FCP. 5.1.4...what have you.
-shane

Need Urgent Help! RAM and Scratch Disk Problem

I was recently working on making a gigapixel panorama. I made the panorama in AutopanoGiga and rendered it as a .psb. I went to go fix some stuff on the file and the first thing I did was content aware fill. The panorama ended up being 4 gigapixels before cropping. So I wanted to try content aware fill on a small portion of the image. I am using a 12-core Mac Pro with 20GB 1333 MHz RAM. I have an SSD as my boot drive and four 2TB mechanical drives, none of which in a RAID.
When I first installed Photoshop on my Mac Pro, I went into the preferences to change the memory and scratch disk settings. The first thing I did was set Photoshop to use 12GB RAM. Then I went to the scratch disk and noticed that only my SSD was set up as a scratch disk. So I unchecked the activate box next to the SSD, activated all 4 other drives, and moved the SSD to the bottom of the list.
So I started content aware fill and saw that it would take some time. So I left and when I came back a little over an hour later, Photoshop gave me a message saying that the scratch disk was full and it couldn't complete the content aware fill. Why did this happen????? I deactivated my SSD and activated four separate 2TB drives!
I went on MacRumors Forums and asked some people, and the only advice I got was to reset my settings. I did that, redid my scratch disk settings, and it is still using my SSD as the scratch disk! Can someone please help??

CAF is processor and memory intensive... most of the flashy demos of this feature have been on much smaller images.
CAF has also been known to kick RAM errors when it simply farts and dies. Is CS5 fully patched?
Wear a helment when you try to hit your head on the ceiling.

I am getting a Photoshop CC "scratch disk full" error, but my scratch disk is C:/ and I have 40 gigs of free space - help!?!

Why is Photoshop giving me this error when I'm not working on files that are that big given the amount of free space on my computer? They're around 1.5 megs each, .jpeg files (not even PSD files) and I'm only trying to resize them to smaller, nothing fancy at all. Can't even open and do one without getting the scratch disk full error - but it's not full when I look at my C:/ drive (even in PS when I check the scratch disks under Preferences you can see the multiple gigs free).
Help anyone?
Thanks!
C

The rule of thumb I follow to figure out scratch space says to figure on 50 to 100 times the size of your largest file ever multiplied by the number of files you have open. I have seen the scratch file exceed 800 GB once, an admittedly rare occurrence, but it often exceeds 200 GB when stitching large panoramas and the like.
As an example—and stressing that I'm aware that others have even more scratch space than I do—I keep two dedicated, physically separate hard drives as my primary and secondary Photoshop scratch disks and a lot of GB free on my boot drive for the OS. I also have 16 GB of RAM installed.
Additionally, if you only have a single HD, i.e. your boot drive, you'd need it to be large enough to accommodate both the swap files of the OS as well as Photoshop's scratch.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Scratch Disk Anomoly

Okay, I ran into an odd problem.
I have a 1TB firewire external drive that I would like to use as my main scratch disk. Every time I try to set my SDs to that drive, through both the capture window and through the Edit>Preferences menu, I have problems. At first it told me I didn't have permission to write to the drive. I think I've fixed that. But now there is an error during batch capture. It says there was an unknown recorder error.
This most recent time I logged 3 clips and set it to batch capture. One clip, the final one in the group that I logged, captured with no problems. But the first two didn't capture. I tried to re-batch those two and in the capture window, where it displays the remaining disk space as it captures, it read that there was only 4.0 GB of space available, and within a minute it gave me the recorder error message. I've got almost 900 GB open on that drive. What's the deal?
And I am confused as to why one clip out of the three captured successfully.
Can anyone shed some light on this? Any help is much appreciated, this project deadline is coming up soon.
Thanks,
BLG

BLG,
Is your external a FW-400, or FW-800? Is it formatted NTSF, or FAT-32? If FAT-32, you can easily Convert (Windows Help File) it to NTSF.
I do not Capture to my externals, but do use them for all other Scratch Disks, and Project files.
Last, is both your camera and your FW external on the same controller chip? That can be a major problem. I'm not talking daisy-chaining, which is worse, but 2 devices on the same FW controller chip.
Good luck,
Hunt

Data File And Scratch Disk

Searching the forum I have not found a very clear answer as to whether having the data file you are working on be on a separate hard drive from the scratch improves performance. I have finall found what seems to be an answer here:
http://macperformanceguide.com/OptimizingPhotoshop-Conclusions.html
To quote the important statement regarding this:
"It’s OK for the scratch volume to use the same physical hard drives as your data volume; access to the original file and scratch volume is almost always at different times, so there is little or no head contention"
Therefore it appears to me that if the physical scratch disk is divided into two partitions then one partition can be used as a scratch disk and the other to store the files being worked on. Does this make sense? I would assume that this is also true on a Windows machine or is there any reason to believe otherwise??
Howard

With still images, it will probably make less of a difference, as the image file is read from the HDD, when Opened. It is not accessed again, until you Save. Now, there will be a short period of time as the image data is read, and also probably written to the Scratch Disk, but that will be quite short.
That said, I always keep my media drive(s) separate from my Scratch Disks to allow for the best throughput. With the price of HDD's, there is almost no reason to NOT split the duties of the physical HDD's (note the word "physical," as you do not want partitions). Fry's (Western US retailer) just had a Seagate 1.5TB ATA-300 for US$89.00. Obviously, an eSATA II will cost more, but you get the idea.
I've always kept my Scratch Disks on empty HDD's, going way back. Obviously, a faster HDD for Scratch Disk would have a bit more benefit, than it will for the media drive.
Good luck,
Hunt

Where within CS6 Photoshop will I find the folder and file to clear the scratch disk on my harddrive ???

Where is the folder (and file) to erase the scratch disk ...

There is no such folder.
The scratch file gets erased as soon as you close the file that was using it.
The rule of thumb I follow to figure out scratch space says to figure on 50 to 100 times the size of your largest file ever multiplied by the number of files you have open. I have seen the scratch file exceed 800 GB once, an admittedly rare occurrence, but it often exceeds 200 GB when stitching large panoramas and the like.
As an example—and stressing that I'm aware that others have even more scratch space than I do—I keep two dedicated, physically separate hard drives as my primary and secondary Photoshop scratch disks and a lot of GB free on my boot drive for the OS. I also have 16 GB of RAM installed.
Additionally, if you only have a single HD, i.e. your boot drive, you'd need it to be large enough to accommodate both the swap files of the OS as well as Photoshop's scratch.

CS4, CS5, Scratch Disk and Prefs

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for