FCP scratch disk help

Hi, I'm new to mac and fcp... it's a bit too much new stuff to grasp.. but I'm trying. could someone tell me why do I need to set scratch disk for? Also what other crucial things, if any, should I be looking at before I can start editing?

>Also what other crucial things, if any, should I be looking at
before I can start editing?
There are far too many to list here - but you should make sure your Scratch Disk is NOT your System Disk - otherwise your system will slow down (and you need everything to run efficiently for video editing as it eats power, memory and drive space)
As Shane said, do the tutorials and read as much as you can.
If you have a problem, search this Discussion Group before you post something elementary.
Good luck
Andy
G5 Quad. 8 GB. 250 & 500 GB Internal HDs. G-Tech G-Raid 1 TB. FCP 5.0.4 (Studio) Mac OS X (10.4.7) Sony HVR-Z1E.
You can't educate pork . . ..

Similar Messages

How to Get XDCAM Transfer files into FCP scratch disk locations

Hi
I'm new to XDCAM transfer. I have XDCAM Browser and Transfer, latest versions. I have successfully imported into FCP, but I was surprised to see the footage stored in a default 'Movies' location. I thought, okay, I'll just change the import location in the XDCAM Transfer preferences to the FCP scratch disk location but then I realized that since I have multiple scratch disk locations I would be defeating the way FCP works, which is to to automatically go to the location with the room for the files.
I didn't have this problem with Panasonic P2.
Is there a way to import XDCAM files into FCP and have it go to the scratch disk locations already established in FCP?
Thank you,
Phil

Hi Phil
Although XDCAM Transfer can be launched from within FCP (using the File > Import > Sony XDCAM.. command) the app itself is standalone and works outside of the control of FCP. It has no means of discovering and using the Capture Scratch location defined within FCP (because Apple do not provide any means for a third party app to do so).
The Panasonic P2 format is (can be) transfered directly using FCP's own Log and Transfer interface and so works wholly within FCP hence the target directory for imports honors the defined Capture Scratch location.
If you are working with the XDCAM EX series of camera's then you can use Sony's FCP Log and Transfer plugin (PDZK - LT1) instead of XDCAM Transfer to import your clips, and so achieve the functionality you are looking for. Although you lose some of the flexibility/functionality of the standalone XDCAM Transfer app (PDZK-P1) the benefit of handling everything directly with FCP's own interface might be preferable for you.
Hope it helps
Andy

SCRATCH DISK HELP...

Don't know if this is possible or not.
I have a project that is stored on an external hard drive. The capture scratch, media files, and project file is stored on this drive. I am using several workstations to work on this project. I am trying to figure out if there is a way to make the worstation default to my external drive once my project is opened on it. Any changes I make to the project that use the capture scratch, ( render files, new footage, ect..) are stored on the systems default capture scratch. I just want to work on the projects without having to change the workstations default scratch disk.

Tom,
The way FCP works is that the Scratch Disk settings are global (apply to all projects the same). While I would love to see FCP work the other way, where each project contains its own settings for this, that isn't the way it is now.
I suspect that each workstation has its own install of FCP. That's where those settings are retained. To get each workstation to recognize your external drive as FCP's scratch disk, you'll need to have the drive mounted, then set it that way for that workstation's copy of FCP. Do that for each workstation and you should be good.
Of course, any other projects will be affected.
-DH

IPod as FCP scratch disk?

I would like to use my 5G iPod as a scratch disk for DV viddeo with Final Cut Pro, but I've read that it could damage the iPod. Is it inadvisable, or should I be fine doing this?

I would advise against this.
The hard drive in the iPod was not designed to take this type of "beating". Using the iPod as a scratch disk would cause the iPods hard drive to be accessed a lot, which generates heat, which kills your battery and could shorten the overall life of your iPod.
Don't take the risk.
Invest in a Firewire external hard drive instead.
EDIT: Even if you did end up using the iPod as a scratch disk... I doubt it would perform very well, for a few reasons. Slow HD in the iPod, and slow connectivity method (USB).

Add internal hard drive for FCP scratch disk

i previously had three LaCie big disk external drives on my G5 to work along with Final Cut Pro, one has quit workin and the others are ready to stop working also. This time around im gonna try to put another local drive inside the g5 via ATA bus. Is this a good move or should i go with another external? whats a good kind of hard disk to use?

No reason not to install a second hard drive internally, but personally, I think using that as a clone of your startup drive is smarter than using it as a media drive. When I have a stable OS/Application combo, I clone my startup drive to my second internal drive. If things go south, I'm back at work in a matter of minutes.
I got a sata card an a 5 bay sata enclosure a year and a half ago and haven't looked back. Raw drives are cheap and trays for the enclosure are about $25.00.
Just remember, Every drive will eventually fail. it's the nature of the technology. Design your workflow accordingly.

CD/DVD drive is scratching disks -- help!

I bought a new digital camera, and when I put in the CD to install the software, the CD drive made a terrible racket and wouldn't install the software -- it said it might be corrupted.
I tried a music CD, and it made the same noise -- and when I ejected it, I noticed that it had scratched the CD up something awful. Same with the previous photo-software CD.
Clearly something is wrong with it, and I'll be calling my local Apple repair center tomorrow, but I'd love to know what kind of damage I'm looking at, just to prepare myself. Of course, I am out of my extended warranty by a grand total of SIX WEEKS. :sobs:
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hello sourismom:
You are taking the correct course. Certainly it looks like the drive has failed. You might appeal to customer relations after the repair (if you decide to have it fixed) to see if they would make some adjustment.
Barry

Different Scratch Disk Per FCP Project

I love FCP Studio and swear by it for most things. I'll cut straight to the point...
I want to be able to set my scratch disk location (capture scratch, render files, audio render files) as a project based setting NOT a system wide setting, and I want FCP to remember this setting for each project.
I am very frustrated with the fact that you can't set the scratch disk to different locations per project, as I am constantly changing the location depending on what I am working on, and sometimes I forget and I'm working off the wrong drive.
Also, sometimes I'm multi-tasking and working on two or more projects for different clients off of different mobile drives. This becomes a big cluster f$!k when I'm forced to render and digitize everything to one drive yet I'm working off of several removable drives that I need to take with me at some point. I need elements for each project to stay on their own drive!
Now, I understand that my need goes outside the real of the normal editor, and may actually cause a larger fundamental back-end issue that I am not aware of, but is it asking too much to have the scratch disk setting a project based setting, and not a system setting?
It seems to me that FCP could just remember where you want to point your files to depending on what project you are working in?
Any ideas? Am I missing an obvious solution? Any 3rd party software out there to help with this?

Matthew Lynn wrote:
... It seems to me that FCP could just remember where you want to point your files to depending on what project you are working in?...
You would think ...
I completely agree and have posted about this on many occasions.
You might find this an interesting read:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10916404#10916404
I absolutely love the ability to set different drives for different file types if we choose.
But it should be a PROJECT setting not a System wide preference.
This thread is just another example of why it should be that way.
Send a suggestion to Apple http://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html
Hey, ya never know.
best,
g

Raid card and scratch disk setup for FCP

Hi Guys
Can anybody tell me what is the correct way to set up a raid card and scratch disk for FCP if you have 3 x 2TB internal hard drives, with the OS on HD1 and drives 2 and 3 dedicated for FCP
Also with this i also have all my documents i.e work stuff, invoices, pictures, music ect from my old windows PC and used to have them stored on HD2 with the Windows 7 OS on HD1 - i have been told that it is fine if i put this on the same drives as FCP is this correct...?
i only ask this as i have been told how to do it in different ways by 3 people......

Thanks John, although i'm rather embarrassed to admit that I am a complete newbie when it comes to technical/computer hardware terms (i.e. I have no idea about different types of disks, other than a HDD and a SSD, or even what the difference is between your media cache and a scratch disk).
This means that after reading all the links you so helpfully provided hasn't done much other than making me feel even more stupid!
The best that I can conclude from what I think that i've understood is that I will use:
Intel 530 Series 120GB SSD for O/S, Programs (and Pagefile?? No idea what this is, sorry)
Samsung 840BW 500GB - Scratch Disk (is this the media cache?) and preview
Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD - media, projects, and exports
Please tell me if i've got something around the wrong way....
Thanks again.

When I try to use the internal hard drive as a scratch disk I get this error "unable to set scratch disk- the selected directory is on write protect or non-writable media. Any ideas on how to fix this. It only happens in fcp.

When I try to use the internal hard drive as a scratch disk I get this error "unable to set scratch disk- the selected directory is on write protect or non-writable media. Any ideas on how to fix this. It only happens in fcp.

By internal, I assume you're referring to your systems (boot) drive. Is it, by chance, a partitioned dive?
Also…although many people successfully use their systems drives as scratch disks, over time you'll have better results using a dedicated drive for your media.
Good luck.
Russ

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.

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.

Help scratch disk is Full (mac)

Help please, Im using a macbook pro (10.8.4) and I can't use my CS6 because I keep getting the message scratch disk is full when it says I have 39.88g free on my hard drive

Fresh Effects wrote:
…I have 32.87GB free out of 83.23GB. I dont know what else I can delete
I would not even think of considering to attempt to run Photoshop on that machine. Sorry.
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 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 Elements 12. Scratch disks are write protected or unavailable' Help

Adobe Premiere Elements 12. Scratch disks are write protected or unavailable' Help

Thank you for your help....
I'm Mac based with iMac that is about 3 months old, 8GB ram and 1 TB disk. OS 10.9 Maverick. I have a Lacie Thunderbolt 3TB as my main disk and a 4TB Lacie for back up...
a. When I create a New document I select where I want the scratch disc to be directed, I add the content and make edits, save the file and then render it. The rendering goes all fine to where I have directed it. As long as I do NOT quit the project or close the project I can create Blu-ray, DVD's, .mov files and all.
BUTTTTT if i quit and reopen that file I get these two alerts first alerts says "The scratch disks are write protected or unavailable." the second comes up whe I go to render "Invalid Scratch Disk path for video previews. Please change it to some other location."
I can not do anything because it can not render or can not write to disks so I can not make DVD's or data files. Could it be OS 10.9?.
FYI I have redirected my scratch to the internal Mac drive and same problem.
See enclosed attachements.
That is where I'm at. Is it a global thing on my internal, exteranal HD's, OS 10.9 or what.
Any ideas?
Jim

Error message:" Couldn't complete the command because the scratch disks are full" Ive try to fix this many times following different steps but none of them work and my disks equal to over 250GB. Please help.

. This error message pops up in Photoshop when i just wanna create a new plain white template. I have downloaded agentransack to track down the temp files and for some reason it says nothing matches the temp files.I have a couple of drives including 2 SSD's. I've try to fix this many times following different steps but none of them work and my disks equal to over 250GB. Please help. ( I am running windows 7 proffesional) 64 bit

Good day!
my disks equal to over 250GB.
What’s relevant is the space on the disk/s you have assigned as Scratch Disks – what are they (Phortoshop > Preferences > Performance > Scratch Disks)?
Regards,
Pfaffenbichler

FCP scratch disk help

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