How to use RAM as scratch disk

Hi,
I am very uncertain about this.
I have a PC with RAM 20GB, Win 7 64 bits. Photoshop CS4.
I have set a hard disk partition as a primary scratch disk.
In the Preferences I have available RAM: 18488 MB
I let Photoshop use 13000 MB (70%).
Every time that I do something on a picture in Photoshop the size of the Photoshop temporary file on the hard disk scratch partition grows.
It seems that my Photoshop uses the hard drive as the scratch disk.
I thought that Photoshop automatically should use extra RAM as a scratch disk.
Have I forgotten to do some setting, or is this the normal behaviour?
How can I force the scratch disk to happen in RAM?
Thanks
/LArry

LarryM01 wrote:
…Every time that I do something on a picture in Photoshop the size of the Photoshop temporary file on the hard disk scratch partition grows…
Perfectly normal, expected behavior.
Photoshop always uses a scratch disk, from the very instant you open an image file or create a new document.  Always.  No exceptions.
LarryM01 wrote:
…I have set a hard disk partition as a primary scratch disk…
If that's a partition of your boot drive, it's futile and you're much better off leaving the boot drive unpartitioned so as to not limit either the Photoshop scratch disk or the OS swap files.  There's nothing to gain because the OS swap files and Photoshop's scratch disk are still competing for the use of the one set of read/write heads.
Bad move.  You're just potentially limiting either the Photoshop scratch disk or the OS swap files.
Wo Tai Lao Le
我太老了

Similar Messages

  • Photoshop CS4 does NOT use RAM as scratch disk

    Photoshop CS4 does NOT use RAM as scratch disk
    as far as I can tell.
    I have 20 GB RAM and still Photoshop uses the hard disk as scratch disk.
    (OS = Win 7 64).
    Can I force the use of RAM as scratch disk?
    /Larry

    Hi PECourtejoie,
    I really try to understand this, please.
    I don't know if 'Hitting the hard disk brings unacceptable slowdowns in my workflow'.
    Because I don't know what unacceptable slowdowns are.
    Any operation in Phshp takes time, and you always want it to go as fast as possible..
    I know that if Phshp only worked against RAM instead of constantly saving to (and reading from) the hard drive it ought to go faster.
    But I still don't know if this is the case, because there is a constant use of a tempfile on the hard drive's Scratch disk!
    So far I understand that Phshp may BOTH work in RAM AND save data to the hard drive Scratch disk.
    It could be possible that the writing to the hard disk happens when Phshp is idle from other tasks and that the reading only happens when data has disappeared from the Cache in RAM.
    That could be a scenario where a Scratch disk on Hard drive doesn't  interfere with Phshps performance, and an explanation why we should not bother about the Scratch disk on the hard drive.
    But I would very much like to have some confirmation on this, IF this is the explanation of how the Scratch disk on a hard drive works without influencing Phshp's performance??
    Everybody just seem to assume that Photoshop uses (some) parts of RAM as work space - I just need a better understanding of this. And some correct descriptions.
    /Larry

  • New system with 32gb Ram.....CS5.5 using alot of scratch disk

    Hi All,
    Been away from these forums for a while.
    OK. I have just built my new rig (Asus p9x79 pro, 32GB 1600Mhz DDR3, Intel 3820, old GTX285 1GB, Win7 pro.....many hard drives ) as I am working on a very big project producing 440x240cm200ppi digital drawings to be installed as lightbox artworks at the same size.
    My old system just could not cope with the demands I was putting on it as It only had 12gb RAM. I have two scratch disks set up x1 30gb SSD (dedicated) and x1 240gb SSD ( has other stuff on it with 75gb free ). I am also using Photoshop CS5 Extended (updated) with RAM usage set to 80% (23976).
    While I realise PS will still make use of the scratch disk despite the amount of RAM I was shocked to see the first drive (30gb) was almost full with 5gb space left when I loaded the PSB file with x9 layers. Looking at the meta data in Bridge it tells me the file size is 6.90GB with pixel dimensions of 34646x18898@200ppi. Windows reports that I am only using 20GB of my 32GB......
    Shouldn't PS be using more RAM before going to the slower reads on a  SSD? Windows Task Manager tells me I have 8150 RAM cached, 12310 RAM Available and 4215 RAM Free.  If Photoshop is not using the 12GB would it be wise to make a 9GB RAMDISK for an addition boost...not even sure if that would work, but, I hate the feeling of having all that RAM and 1/3 not being used.

    You referred to the answer to your puzzlement yourself when you typed "I realise PS will still make use of the scratch disk despite the amount of RAM" [emphasis added].
    Photoshop creates the scratch disk the instant you open an image file or create a new one.  It sets its initial size based on its size, number of layers, history states, etc., regardless of installed RAM.  It starts using the scratch disks from the get go, moving stuff off of the scratch disk into RAM and viceversa as Photoshop sees fit.
    When setting up a scratch disk, figure on at least 100 times (or more) the size of your largest file, multiplied by the number of files you keep open at any given time.
    The total amount of scratch disk space on your two drives (30 GB + 75 GB) is not that large, as per the above calculation.
    Just for reference, my dedicated primary scratch disk is a 300 GB physically separate internal hard drive, and I also have other drives set up as secondary, etc., hard drives.  Other users have a lot more scratch disk space than I do.  I normally have no more than two files open in Photoshop at once, occasionally three or four.
    Also keep in mind that the percentage of memory you allocate to Photoshop is not a percentage of total installed RAM but of available memory at any given time after the OS and other applications you have running have grabbed the RAM they need.  Therefore the calculation you made is not necessarily accurate.
    As to creating a RAM disk, I supposed there's no harm in trying, but the real question is whether you are seeing any real performance problems now, rather than just calculating RAM figures that may or may not be that relevant in actual use.
    Conceivably, you could also get a much larger SSD as your primary scratch disk.

  • How do you choose the scratch disk in lightroom 5.5

    how do you choose the scratch disk in lightroom 5.5

    You don't. There is no "scratch disc" in Lightroom. Please rephrase your question.

  • How do I clear the scratch disk?

    PS CC keeps telling me my scratch disk is too full.  I don"t know where i is ti clear it out.  I'm running Windows 8.

    You define which disks to use for your scratch disk in Preferences-Performance. Ideally, a scratch disk is a separate disk drive with lots of free space on it. Every time you load brushes, swatches, make an edit that gets recorded to a history state, etc. information is written to the scratch disk. If you only have the one disk drive on your computer that you are running your OS, Photoshop, saving files, etc, it's possible to use up all the free space for scratch and not be able to save your file!
    To immediately free up some scratch space that Photoshop is using, go to Edit-Purge, and remove some (or all) of the saved scratch information. Aside from that, make sure you delete anything not needed on your scratch disk(s) to free up more space. Buy an extra external hard drive of at least a few hundred gigabytes and set that as a scratch disk to avoid running out of scratch disk space.

  • *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.

  • Photoshop RAM versus scratch disk/cache use

    I recently ugraded my Mac to a new (to me) Power Mac G5 Dual 2GHz with 4GB RAM and two HDDs, one with OSX at 500GB and the other with 250GB (currently empty).
    I followed the Adobe recommendations on setting up Photoshop CS2 for performance. I have my cache and scratch disk as the second (250GB) disk and therefore a different volume to the operating system. This disk is currently empty. In the cache settings, Photoshop sees 3072MB of the 4GB memory as available to it, and I have set the amount that PSCS2 can use to 100% (as Adobe states this is OK if you have 4GB or more of RAM).
    With nothing else running on the Mac, when I open a tiff image of around 70MB, I can see in the status line at the bottom of the image window that the Efficiency is sometimes 100% but often drops to below 90% and down to 75% when doing image manipulations, which means that the scratch disk is being used (Adobe states that the Efficiency should be 95-100% when all actions are being done in RAM). However, when I look at the RAM status, there is still 2.5GB free, so PSCS2 has obviously not used all the RAM available to it when it starts using the scratch disk. I can also see that activity on the 250GB drive occurs when I do these manipulations, so the scratch disk is being accessed rather than actions being done in RAM
    The only time I see the available RAM figure reduce is when I open multiple images. If I open ten 70MB tiff files then the RAM usage goes up a lot.
    So my question is, why does PSCS2 use the scratch disk almost immediately when I manipulate an image even when I have told it to use 100% of the available 3072MB of available RAM? Have I missed a setting somewhere?
    Any help or guidance appreciated.

    Hi Buko
    Thank you for your response. I did work through the optimisation guidelines before posting my message. I guess it is more about understanding why PSCS2 used the scratch disk when there is over 2GB of memory available, but I accept that it does what it does for good reason.
    Could you let me know what the partitioning of my scratch disk will achieve? I did not see that in the optimisation guidelines, but I will definitely give it a try. I am interested to now what is actually does.
    Thanks again, much appreciated.
    Simon

  • Anyone know how to reset the lens correction filter? (it's using the wrong scratch disk)

    OK, to back up a little, I recently discovered that photoshop was using the wrong drive for it's scratch disk (it wasn't obeying the preferences I'd set). So, I reset the photoshop preferences file (ctrl-alt-shift & open photoshop).
    Trouble is, the lens correction filter is still using drive "F:" (my only scratch disks are C, D and I). It access it at a root level and creates some temporary files while the filter is in use.
    Does anyone know how I can get photoshop to behave?
    Thanks

    See my reply to this question in your original thread:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11675339#11675339
    Please try to keep all your responses in the thread that you started there. It makes it much easier for the folks who are trying to help you, keep track of what has already been suggested. Thank you.

  • 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

  • How do I add a scratch disk?

    Is it beneficial or asking for grief to add my external drive as a scratch disk? How can I do this? There seems to be no facility to do this in Preferences.

    Generally speaking, an external isn't going to work. Your scratch disk would need to be at least as fast as the disk where PSE is installed, which means that externals are generally out, since the speed of the connection is going to mean it's slower than the internal, for real life purposes. In other words, even if the disk speed is faster, if you are connected by USB, the USB connection is the clog. Better to move some document files to the external and free up space on the internal for PSE to use.

  • 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. 

  • What to use for a "Scratch Disk"...

    Hello All,
    Prior to Christmas i lost my primary HD. Stupidly I didn't have a very good backing up procedure in place. I now have my G4 back up and runnung with a fresh HD and I would like to get off on the right foot.
    Prior to the afore mentioned incident I had been using my primary for a scratch disk. It was a lack of education (ie, v.stupid) and I have now purchased a Lacie Little BigDisk (200GB) purely for FC media.
    What I would like to ask is: Is there any reason to partition the disk? And, bearing in mind that I have not yet installed FC5, would it work better installed on the primary, or the external?
    Forgive me if these answers seem uneducated, but to be honest in this area, I am...
    If I could, I would like to ask a side question on partitioning.
    As I mentioned, I have recently experienced a hard drive failure. Because of this I am now attempting to back-up everything I know, in the proper manner. I have been advised to clone my startup disk and I was thinking that If I bought decent external around 200GB I could partition it in half. My primary is 100GB and that would leave me with another 100 for music etc.
    Does this sound like a decent plan?
    I travel a LOT so I can only have 2 externals with me and they can't be too big. I thought with one as a scratch disk for Final Cut (my main work) and another for clone backing up and storage of music and movies etc...
    I very much value the opinion's and advice from people here in the forum. Thank you for taking the time,
    Regards,
    Philip

    The basic idea is that you don't want the drive that is playing back your media to be worried about doing anything else. That's why you don't want media on your system drive. It's got enought to do running the OS and FCP itself. Asking it to also playback media (although it can work) is really pushing it.
    Of course you can store other files on your media drive, just don't ask it to do other things while playing back media files.
    As for partitioning, remember that no matter how many partitions you have it's still physically only one drive. So partitions won't get around any of the above mentioned issues.
    Good Luck
    rh

  • How do I setup the scratch disk on a 2nd internal drive?

    I am having difficulty setuping up a scratch disk on a 2nd internal hard drive for final cut pro X. When I go to file/import the second drive is not visible. Any ideas....
    Thanks!

    I had the same issue with my iMac and 2 internal disks: system & applications on 256GB SSD, another 2TB internal hard disk that was meant to store media, and Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 just wouldn't see my 2TB internal disk. Only the SSD would appear in the Event Browser.
    I solved it by checking read/write permissions on the hard disk. I have 2 users: one with admin rights which I used to initially set up the iMac and install software (including FCP X), and another user with standard rights for everyday use (including FCP X production).
    My 2nd user only had read permissions on the 2nd internal hard disk. I selected the disk, Command-I, changed permissions to read/write, and when I launched FCP X again, both volumes would show up now. Issue solved!
    Hope this helps.

  • PSE 2.0 using Windows 8 - Scratch Disk Full

    I'm trying to install PSE 2.0 on a new computer using Windows 8 and I'm getting a message "Scratch Disk is full".  Can anyone help?

    That's the problem, your hard drive is way too big to run photoshop elements 2.
    You have only used less than 200 gb on that hard drive and the rest is free space (empty)
    Photoshop elements 2 can't see all that empty space, because when it came out around 2002, pse 2 was never intended to work on hard drives bigger than 1TB, mainly
    because of windows issues and hardly anybody had such large hard drives at the time.
    Your best option is to find an older version of photoshop elements from pse 6 to pse 11 or buy the current version photoshop elements 12.

Maybe you are looking for