Drive scratches discs

After a lot of troubleshooting and re-installing Boot Camp and Windows XP I discovered that my Optical drive in my iMac has been scratching my Imac discs.
My Mac OSX install DVD keeps getting stuck into wait mode when I try to use Boot Camp drivers. And today i noticed that my Applications CD is also scratched. How do I get them replaced?

I believe apple will replace the dvds for a small nominal charge. You need to give them you machine's serial number.
As for the dvd player. I know the dvd players themselves are pretty cheap. It's the labor that's the the bigger cost (I guess that's true for most anything these days).
If you are willing to do it yourself then googling "replace optical drive in imac" has pleny of hits. Also iFixit has a lot of info on this as well.

Similar Messages

DVD drive scratching discs.

Anyone else noticing this?
Got a brand new iMac 27" i5.
Multiple discs have gone in & had issues reading... they come out with a circle scratched all the way around. Checked with freshly burned discs with no problems on other macs but when they go into the iMac they come out scratched & often now unusable in any system.

We discovered the issue with scratched disks after 10.6 experienced some serious problems with a Helvetica Nueue font, at which point we tried wiping the system installing 10.5. When our IT people couldn't get 10.5 to work, we tried 10.4, only to find out that the brand new, 2700 dollar 27" iMac decimated both disks.
The fact that Apple considers this user error and not a real issue with the hardware is insulting. A year and a half ago, my brand new 24" iMac had to be returned and eventually replaced with a newer model, and I've had numerous issues with battery swelling on my Mac Book Pro. Now this problem, which comes with an extra kick to the butt, considering I had a "genius" tell me to be more careful about inserting my disks. Guess what, Genius? I've been inserting disks in older iMacs the same way for 2 years, and never had an issue with scratching.
I have been an avid supporter of Apple since I started in the design industry 13 years ago, but lately, due to the increasing shoddiness of the products and the level of humiliation and condescension I experience at the genius bar, I'm seriously considering wiping my hands of the brand and buying a PC. At least I can anticipate the crashing issues, and buy an external drive for regular backup.

Drive scratching discs

I am having problems with my CD/DVD drive. When I put a CD and eject often the MacBook Pro scratches the disc. Its not every time but the cast majority. Sometimes it scratches the disc on insertion and on ejecting so sometimes it leaves two nice long scratches. Any ideas as I have ruined most of my CD collection?

First, stop inserting CD's or DVD's until you've fixed the problem.
If the disk is getting scratched, then there's something protruding in your DVD drive, and you should be able to locate it by the scratches. It could be the lens failing to retract or focus correctly, but I don't think that's as likely as some debris stuck in the drive.
If you can't disassemble the drive to clean it, a new replacement is only about $ 30.

Using an external hard drive (HD), on a network, as a scratch disc?

I am weighing my options on creating a wireless network around an external HD. My macbook pro is getting full and I am going to do a spring cleaning and get everything in order. I pretty much know how I want to do it but I am wondering if I can use an external hard drive as a scratch disc, wirelessly?
Thanks in advance,
Howi

Nevermind. This answered my question: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-610667.html
Howi

How in the world can I select my external hard drive as a scratch disc for video? Please skip the obvious, like 'is it plugged in?'

At wit's end trying to select my external hard drive to load video on. Time Machine backed stuff up on it so the computer knows it's there but it won't show anywhere else, iMovie or FCE4.

Hi Eric and thanx for the fast response. I've had very little time to piddle around with this iMac and fce4 since I got it a few years back but I DO remember seeing an option back then--when capturing video from the camera--to choose some other scratch disc. Some time after buying and plugging in the ext. drive I clicked on Time Machine (not even knowing what it was--some window popped up and it looked good). I wonder if turning on Time Mach has locked me out of the ext. drive. It doesn't show up ANYWHERE ANYTIME now, not under system pref., user pref. in fce4 or iMovie or anything else EXCEPT when I click on Time Machine it does tell me I've 2.97 terrabytes of space (which has to be the ext. drive; the iMac has 500 gb). I'm thinking of uninstalling and reinstalling fce4 and starting over.

Scratch Disc Questions using Firewire External Drive & Imac

Hello. I've read through the existing questions regarding scratch disc and Photoshop, yet can't seem to find an answer to my questions. I would greatly appreciate any tips/advice. Here is my setup and situation:
I am running an iMac with a 2.16 intel core 2 duo processor, 3 GB memory, and running OS X version 10.6.4. I am currently using versions cs3 and cs4 of Photoshop, but plan to upgrade to cs5 soon.
The problem I am having is when running Photoshop, my computer becomes very slow. After reading about possible reasons, I came across a couple of sources (including Adobe themeselves) mentioning that the scratch disc should be a designated drive seperate from the drive containing the operating system. Since I am using an iMac that only allows for one internal drive, my only apparent option seems to be an external drive.
Many people say don't use an external drive, but if you are going to; use an eSATA or firewire. The imac does have firewire 800 capabilities. Should I consider this?
Now I'm wondering if it's a bad idea to purchase a macbook for my next computer (what I wanted to do) because it will also only have one drive, not allowing for a seperate drive for the scratch disc. Any thoughts? I've read around the net but haven't found any definitive answers.

Designer,
Photoshop benefits greatly from having a scratch disk on a separate physical drive, not on the boot disk or on another partition of the boot disk. It's almost not worth connecting via Firewire 400 because the transfer limitations don't allow much performance improvement. But using a Firewire 800 connection gives excellent performance.
Running Photoshop on a one-drive machine is a little frustrating due to the performance hit without the separate scratch drive.
Rich

How to Reformat the hard drive I use to edit with..."scratch disc"

Today when I turned on my computer I got a strange message on the screen that basically said I need to back up one of my drives and format it asap. It also said the computer couldn't repair it.
This is the HD I use to edit with as my scratch disc with Final Cut Pro.
I am in the process of backing my files up now. One thing I noticed was that some of my files I don't need anymore and wanted to trash them but it won't allow me to trash files! I get an error message when I drag the file to the trash. So I am going to have to back everything up and I guess will have to erase the disc.
I never reformatted a disc before so if anyone knows what I need to do that would be great since this is the drive I used to edit with.
Thanks.
Message was edited by: DVX100Shooter

To reformat a hard drive, launch Disk Utilities (in the Applications->Utilities folder) and click on the Erase tab. Select the drive you want to reformat then choose "Mac OS Extended" ... give the volume a name and click on the Erase button.
Once the drive is reformatted, open FCP and assign it as the scratch disk.
However, the drive may be suffering from other problems that reformatting won't fix.
-DH

Partitioning a new laptop's RAID drive for scratch disc

I've now set my heart on getting a laptop. I'm doing to much on my old desktop, and getting a laptop is hopefully going to ease the burden & open up some possibilities. Certainly the specs will way better.
I'm seriously thinking about getting a Sony VAIO AR71ZU.
http://vaio.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProduct.action?product=VGN-AR71ZU&site=voe_en_GB_cons&cate gory=VN+AR+Series&assetid=1218032875460
It has a lot f features I like & has 4GB of RAM. Unfortunately it's Vista (Ultimate), but that's what things are coming with now, so that's that.
It has 640GB of HDD space:
Hard Drive Type Serial ATA RAID 0 (0 and 1 supported) 2x320GB
Hard Drive Capacity (GB) 640
Hard Drive Speed (rpm) 5400
The two 320 GB drives look are joined -"con.... something" ! sorry I've forgotten the name for this- the opposite of partitioning. Hence it the drives are seen as one drive. Well for Photoshop one wants a second drive for scratch disc purposes doesn't one. Can I partition this 640GB (320+320GB) drive ? Anyone out there know ? Is it an ok thing to do ?
[One of the added features is "HDD recovery (hidden partition)". I assume this is the backup /recovery facility that comes with Vista Ultimate ? Anyway, it may be of note, as it mentions "hidden partition. Would this interfere with any partitioning ? ]
If I can partition then would it be wise to go for three partitions: one as the main program drive; one for most documents & files; and one for back-up/ other stuff including for use as first scratch disc ?
Anyone wise?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
[I'm also been looking at the possibility of an Alienware laptop, but really I'd rather put that money elsewhere. (Eventually a new desktop but not yet.)]

Thanks, most informative.
I'm considering an Alienware laptop.(Though, expensive!) One can have the double RAID drive, and there is something called SMART BAY which bascially is 3rd drive. Maybe this is a way around things- perhaps get that & make that for the scratch disc...an expensive way around things!

Moving contents of FCE scratch disc to external Drive from an iMac Drive

Is there a way of moving the captured HDV video in the Scratch Disc for a project from an iMac hard drive to an external drive if the initial capture placed it in the iMac drive.
FCE captured my original HDV on my iMac in the FCE Document folder. I thought I had specified my external Glyph drive for the captured video but discovered after editing and saving the project to the external GLYPH that the original capture was in the FCE document folder on the iMac --where I did not want it. The project is saved on the external GLYPH. Is there a way of moving the Scratch Disc (original captured video) for this project from the iMac Hard drive to the Glyph drive (in other words, after the initial capture) without screwing up the editing I have already done.
I had created a "Media" folder on the external drive for all media to be used in this project before capturing the video but the Easy set up did not give me a scratch option and placed it in the default (iMac) drive.
This is my first time trying out FCE. Help would be appreciated.
macrobob

Is there a way of moving the captured HDV video in the Scratch Disc for a project from an iMac hard drive to an external drive if the initial capture placed it in the iMac drive.
Yes, just copy the files to the folder(s) you want them to be in.
I normally capture to my internal drive (Final Cut Express Documents > Capture Scratch folder.) After capturing, I copy the clips to a folder on one of my external drives; usually give the folder the name of the shoot. That's my simple way of organizing clips on my hard drives; and it makes backing up easier too.
After you copy the clips, you should delete the clips from their original location (I assume that is your Capture Scratch folder on your system HD). Be sure to Empty the Trash. Very important - make sure you have successfully copied all your clips to the external drive; once you empty trash, the originals are gone.
When you open your project file the next time, all your clips will be offline and you will have to go through the Reconnect Media process to re-associate your clips with your project. After successfully reconnecting media, Save your project and all should be fine.
I highly recommend reading the sections of the manual (online help) about scratch disk locations; and reconnecting media.
but the Easy set up did not give me a scratch option and placed it in the default (iMac) drive.
Scratch locations are not part of Easy Setups. You set your scratch disk location in FCE > System Settings.

Secondary scratch disc, on main drive?

I keep my scratch disc on a portable firewire drive, but when I just want to do some editing on the go, I dont want to have to carry it around and the like. So I tried to make a scratch folder on my desktop and set it as a scratch disc so I can edit little stuff, but it wont let me. Everytime I try it says it is already a scratch disc...
I took a screenshot, please help! Thank you
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thatryan/3749483433/

Look on your hard drive-- there should be a default final cut documents folder there already. It got parked there when you installed.

I have PSE-12 on Mac. Got message "scratch disc full" tried changing drive to backup disc. Now PSE-12 will not open to allow me to go back to original drive. What can I do?

Using PSE-12 on my Mac and got the message 'scratch disc full' I have backup disc attached to computer and tried making this the number 1 disc. I now can't get PSE-12 to open so that I can get back and reverse the order of these discs. What can I do?

Go to your username>library>preferences and delete:
com.adobe.PhotoshopElements.plist
Adobe Photoshop Elements 12 paths
Adobe Photoshop Elemetns 12 settings
and any lockfiles with the same names. That library is hidden in 10.7 and up. To see it, click the Go menu in the finder and hold down the Option key and it will appear below the little house for your user account. While you're in there go to the saved application states folder and delete any for PSE.

How to determine the scratch disc size?

hello,
once i was reading an adobe pdf "How to get better performance in photoshop cs5" - that was in 2009 or 2010, and may be outdated, but there was a calculation method
to determine the size of a scratch disc. (similar calculation see below, if i can remember right)
i am asking myself, how can i determine the correct size of an external SSD-scratch disc, only used by photoshop (completely empty):
should i buy a 128GB or 256GB or 512GB SSD which is only reserved for photoshop?
basic question 1 : i guess i should avoid to set the internal SSD as photoshop scratch disc, as it slows down everything?
basic question 2 : in sense of maximum performance: better buy an external USB3.0 or thunderbolt SSD? will photoshop really use the extra thunderbolt speed when swapping data?
secondary question:
can i calculate the size regarding my daily working habits?
i am mainly working like this:
- with my imac 27" late 2013 with 32GB RAM and 256 GB internal pci-e SSD (800 MB/sec), which will stay always half empty for performance reasons.
- OSX 10.8 mountain lion and 10.9 mavericks soon
- photoshop cs5, cs6 and cc (always without extended)
- 8bit and 16bit mode
- only RGB
- with latest phocus/Hasselblad and canon RAW Files which produce a basic .psb document at ...
- 10.000 x 7000 px at 300dpi
- with average 10 - 40 main image layers and 20-50 adjustement layers (try to reduce that in 16bit)
- .psb file is 2-20 GB big (file in finder)
- 16bit file compression is off, when saving .psb files (faster handling)
- set photoshop to 70% ram usage (from 32GB RAM)
i wonder how to calculate ?
for example:
10.000 x 7000 px at 300dpi needs for one image layer at 16bit: 2GB RAM in photoshop cs6 or cc (just as a number), this may be wrong
so lets take 2GB RAM and multiply with 10 image layers in my .psb file (16bit) = 20 GB RAM, and multiply with 20 adjustment layers (guess they need less ram, for one lets say 500MB) = 20GB + 10GB = this 16bit .psb layer file would need 30GB RAM, so when i have 32GB in my imac, i set cs6 or cc to 70% ram usage, it misses at least round 8-10GB RAM > can i guess that photoshop would swap these 8GB onto my scratch disc? or do i miss something important in my thinking?
tricky thinking
thanks for help

station_two wrote:
The rule of thumb I follow 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 300 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.
- i dont use HDD anymore only SSDs, both internal and external
- i set history state to only 5 or 6, to improve performance
- i set cache size to 4 and tiles to "big and flat" with 1028kb (there is no "big and much layers" option)
- is this still the rule of thumb? i read it in 2009 , too, guess it was outdated, as cs6 and cc have improved codes in terms of performance?
- if you say "50 to 100 times the size of your largest file ever multiplied by the number of files you have open.":
i will not open more than one document at same time to prevent performance lags, so lets calc like: dokument size in finder (you mean in finder or doc. size shown in photoshop?) = e.g. 5GB x 100 = 500GB, so my external scratch disc SSD, i would buy now, should be at least 500GB, USB 3.0 or thunderbolt ... maybe better thunderbolt, yes? with usb 3.0 i could gain 300MB/sec if thats enough for photoshop?
thanks

Mac OS X - Scratches Discs!

Is anyone else having this problem? My new Mac OS X - desktop - is scratching discs. It is not how I pull the discs out. I am very careful. Apple has already replaced the superdrive twice now! And it is still scratching! The scratches are circular and obviously happen as the disc is spinning in the drive. Multiple scratches happen nearly every time I put a disc in the machine. What is going on?

Hi c2zion: If the main reason for your wanting X11, is to install Open Office, another very good option is Neo Office. It is very similar to Open Office, and doesn't require X11. It is available here: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/download.php
Stedman
MBP 1.83, 1.5gB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.10) Quiet, Cool, Re-furbished, iPod mini, iPod shuffle

Suggestion For An External Scratch Disc needed

I have recently learned that I had my scratch disc set up incorrectly to the same internal SSD in the Mac Book Pro. I assume that to keep the maximum transfer speed I need and external HDD or SSD with FireWire 800 instead of USB. I have found a few of those but they are much larger than what I need in GB and physical size.
I need something portable and reliable since I do most of the work on the road.
Thanks for your suggestions.

Have you considered a G-Drive mobile or G-Drive mini SSD? Both are bus-powered.
If you're ok using AC power, look at the G-Drive mini.
These are very nice units - small, reliable, good reputation.
FireWire (or eSATA if you have a MBP with an ExpressCard slot) is the way to go. USB generally cannot keep up with the sustained throughput required for video.

What does it mean when I get the message "scratch disc is full"?

Trying to work on Photoshop and I'm getting the message, "scratch disc is full".

Ultimately here is the deal. Like OS X and Windows do at the system level, Photoshop will grow a virtual memory scratch file on your hard drive if you don't have enough RAM to do what you are trying to do.
That means, step 1 in preventing the scratch file is to put more RAM in the Mac so that Photoshop doesn't run out so fast and have to shove data off to the disk to make room.
Step 2 is to put the scratch file on another disk. This is why pros have often used desktop towers, because you can put multiple disks inside them. For example, system on one disk with lots of free space, photo library on another disk so it can grow freely, and another disk that is used exclusively to hold scratch files for Photoshop and other programs that need to do the same thing like Apple Final Cut. Splitting the data streams (system, file access, scratch) like this also speeds up the machine considerably since they're not all trying to use the disk at the same time.
The way you put the scratch file on another disk is to go into the Photoshop prefs, click Performance, and assign one of your other disks as a Scratch Disk there. (Use a fast disk, not a network or USB 1.0/2.0 disk, and partitioning your main disk will not help.)
If you do this, you don't need to change your main disk at all, you don't need to manually move any files off of it. Because by moving the scratch file off your main disk, the 58GB of free space you have there will now be plenty.
I used to use a PowerBook with an external monitor as a Photoshop machine, and plugged in a FireWire 800 external as a scratch disk. Even just doing that helped a lot.

Drive scratches discs

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