Photoshop 7: "Scratch Disk Full" with a 1.T HD (too big?)

I bought a new 64-bit Windows 7 based machine with 8G of RAM and a single internal 1.5T HD (almost empty). The system is also hooked up to an external HD with 1T space (about half full). It uses a RAID system as well.
It installed fine. But when I try to run it, it starts the typical loading of stuff, then comes up with the message "Unable to initialize Photoshop, the scratch disks are full". What is frustrating is it then exits with no way of changing setting in Photoshop (say, to a smaller HD it thinks has space).
I this a known issue? Is there a cofiguration file I need to change manually? Am I missing a patch? In any case, whee is the layest Photoshop 7.0.1 patch for downloading?
Thanks!

There are several recent posts on this. PS 7 will not recognizea 1T disk, as it never existed in those days.
Bellieve solution was to create a disk partition of x mb for it to use. Easy to do with Vista, should be same with Win 7.
Here is a link to one of those discussions. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/617926?tstart=60

Similar Messages

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.

Why photoshop shows "scratch disk full" error, while in preferences I see that my extra harddrive with free disk space of 216GB is active?

"Could not update smart object files because the scratch disks are full". Please help, I though I connected my huge drive to photoshop?

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 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.

I get a message "could not initalize scratch disk full" I hae a new computer with Win 8 and I am installing PS 7

I get a message "could not initalize scratch disk full" I have a new computer with Win 8 and I am installing PS 7. how can I fix the scratch disk problem? Thank you for the help.

Are you saying that the Installation failed, or that Photoshop has installed but won't open?
You say Photoshop PS7. Is that a typo, or do you really mean the version that was released in 2002 and that preceded Photoshop CS?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop_version_history#7.0
If you do indeed mean PS7, then I am afraid that is not compatible with Windows 8.1
Windows Compatibility Center

Photoshop Elements 2.0 Windows 7 Scratch Disks Full

Hello there,
I have seen a few posts about PSE2 on Windows 7, but none of them have helped get it working for me. Same deal, I run PSE2 and get the "Scratch disks full" message. I have a 1.5GB hard drive. I have tried everything and no luck on getting it working. Any new ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

Here are some of the things i've had success with in older versions of photoshop (pse 2 or ps 7 and older versions) with hard drives bugger than 1tb.
The first two always work
1. Install windows xp mode if your version of windows 7 supports it.
2. Install an older operating system on vmware or virtualbox.
3. Run pse 2 as an administrator and press the Alt+Ctrl keys just after starting pse 2, and then set the scratch disk to the recovery partition on your hard drve.
4. add a second hard drive to use as the scratch disk for pse 2
5. Partition a part of your existing hard drve to use as the scratch disk for pse 2
6. Re install windows 7 on partition of 1tb and then partition the rest of the 500mb for storage of files
Added: You always have the option of buying photoshop elements 10 which has no problems with hard drives bigger than 1b.
Message was edited by: R_Kelly

Hi i cant use photoshop when i try and adjust an image is says Scratch disk full but i have memory a

Hi i cant use photoshop when i try and adjust an image is says Scratch disk full but i have memory available on my mac

This forum is actually about the Cloud, not about using individual programs
Once your program downloads and installs with no errors, you need the program forum
If you start at the Forums Index http://forums.adobe.com/index.jspa
You will be able to select a forum for the specific Adobe product(s) you use
Click the "down arrow" symbol on the right (where it says ALL FORUMS) to open the drop down list and scroll
http://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop

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

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

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

PS7 and Scratch Disk Full, using XP SP3 with 1 HD... how to fix?

I've searched the forum, yet couldn't find an answer or fix... I installed my old PS7 on my new computer running XP with SP3 on a dualcore Intel, 1.5T HD (only one drive), 3Gb of RAM-- not enough money to upgrade PS, computer took first dibs... PS7 refuses to open - after booting, comes up with a pop-up error stating the Scratch Disk is full, then shuts down.
My old system (W-2000, 20Gb single HD, with 1.8 Pentium processor, 1Gb of RAM) worked perfectly with PS7 - never had any problems...
I've tried all fixes possible... HD is not even close to fragmented as is a new drive; not enough programs installed yet, or use on machine, for disk clean-up to be necessary; forced creation of the preference file (changed name to .old); and did the ctrl-alt-shift to boot to defaults. No idea what is going on or why it would say scratch disk full.

Uaphil wrote:
Actually, there are no partitions on my drive. (I didn't realize PS needed a different drive or partition) My old computer and HD didn't have partitions either, and worked perfectly.
Could it be an issue with PS7 and the size of the HD? If so, is there a patch for this?
The point isn't that Photoshop needs different drives or partitions but that, as you suggest, the old PS 7 has problems with drives much bigger than were imagined in the days it was written.
However there are advantages in having the the scratch disk on a separate physical drive from the system drive where the paging file normally resides.

What does scratch disk full mean? My photoshop elements 2 won't initialize.

What does scratch disk full mean???

If your scratch disk were really full, it would mean that there's not enough space left on your hard drive for PSE to do its calculations. But usually that error message means your hard drive is too big. PSE 2 can't see a 1 GB drive, for instance. It wants 750MB or less. If you use windows you can possibly get around it by partitioning your hard drive, if you think it's worth it. There's no way to make PSE 2 run on a current mac.

Elements 2.0 and Windows 7 - Scratch disks full

I have read the previous post regarding the Scratch Disks full error on starting up Photoshop elements 2.0. I have started PSE2 holding down the Ctrl/Alt keys and have been given a prompt box where I cna change the scrtach disk locations, but the changes don't "stick". I continue to get the same error and the scratch disk location does not change. I started PSE2 holding down the Ctrl/Alt/Shift and got the box where I can delete the setting and have deleted them and still get the same error message.
Any suggestions?

Follow the instructions here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-the-size-of-virtual-memory
I don't know off hand the recommended settings. I have about 6MB pagefile size (VM) with a Vista 64 machine that also has 6MB RAM. Elements 2 is running just fine on this machine. You may want to go to the same relationship VM vs RAM as I have it. If that is not enough, try to make the VM 150% of RAM.
Juergen

Scratch Disk Full error for PS7 installation in Windows 7

Can anyone from Adobe tech support tell me how to install my own copy of PS7 on my new Windows 7 computer without having the Scratch Disk Full error show up? I am comfortable around my computer but am certainly not a tech wizard and it would be helpful if there was a set of specific steps I could take. I've read forums about partitioning but I don't want to make a wrong step and screw everything else up. Also, is this a problem with the more recent Photoshop CS versions?

Well, I've been able to install my PS-7 on my virtual drive in XP mode somehow (I got the 'disk full' pop-up, but then it seemed to install it anyway- I don't remember if it was the curse I leveled at it or what- and it still seems to run. I can actually access images from the Windows 7 side C: drive after opening Photoshop and going to 'open/ C:/ My Photos (or whatever)', but images I open in Windows 7 have to be saved on my hard drive before I can access them in Photoshop in XP mode. I'm still not sure where the new images will be stored and if they will be able to be accessed from both XP and Windows 7 mode (my gut says "fat chance"), and I can't have my Windows 7 images open in Photoshop natively.
I have therefore decided to add to the (probably swelling) coffers of Adobe by buying a shiny, brand new, squeaky-clean, and (hopefully) fully functional copy of Photoshop Elements 10 to install on my Windows 7 side, so now I can avoid having some lame 'viewer' program open my images. Ain't technology grand?

"Scratch Disk Full" in Photoshop CS3, 30MB Free"

I've been all over the net and can't find an answer.
I have only one drive (I will be fixing that problem tomorrow), a 250GB on my PowerMac G5. Disk Info says there are 50 GB Available. Photoshop preferences agree. Still, I cannot crop a lousy 4MB file.
Viewed and repaired permissions - wasn't much there, actually. Got Onyx, ran everything I could (although I don't really understand all of it), no change.
I am a professional photographer, many large (over 30MB) files, but I never ran into anything like this. I read that Photoshop runs into fragments and goes no further, even if there is empty space on the disk. At the same time I read that Tiger defragments automatically. I dunno.
Activity Monitor says I have plenty of memory.
Am I looking at a total disk formatting adventure?

Bob,
Activity Monitor says I have plenty of memory.
"Memory" refers to RAM, whereas the "scratch disk" is your hard drive. 50 GB available before you start working with Photoshop files may seem a lot, but when you open large files, it is not that much. It may really run full. If the same is the case with a little 4 MB file (without having just worked on a 30 MB file during the same session), this is really weird.
Check your disk space with Activity Montor and select +Hard Disk load+ (or something like this; I don't work on an English OS). CPU > Memory > Hard Disk Activity > *Hard Disk Load* > Network.
Have you got an external hard drive with more than 50 GB free that you could use as a scratch disk test drive instead of your internal?
Peter

Scratch Disk Full While Cropping Image In Photoshop

I saw another post on this, but they were able to resolve their issue on their own. I still think I have an issue.
I have a Macbook Pro (80GB harddrive where I've only used 51GB). A couple of days ago I upgraded the RAM from 512MB to 2GB. I recently used Adobe Photoshop CS (ver.8.0), and while attempting to crop an image (22.8MB), an error pops up saying: "could not complete your request because scratch disks are full".
Now my scratch disk, I have the following:
1st: Startup
2nd: Hard drive
3rd: none
4th: none
So, with this set up (and even if I make the image smaller), their is not enough scratch disk space. I have plenty of space in my harddrive. Wondering if the recent upgrade of RAM has anything to do w/ this situation. Anyway, any advice is much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
C.

Bob,
Activity Monitor says I have plenty of memory.
"Memory" refers to RAM, whereas the "scratch disk" is your hard drive. 50 GB available before you start working with Photoshop files may seem a lot, but when you open large files, it is not that much. It may really run full. If the same is the case with a little 4 MB file (without having just worked on a 30 MB file during the same session), this is really weird.
Check your disk space with Activity Montor and select +Hard Disk load+ (or something like this; I don't work on an English OS). CPU > Memory > Hard Disk Activity > *Hard Disk Load* > Network.
Have you got an external hard drive with more than 50 GB free that you could use as a scratch disk test drive instead of your internal?
Peter

Scratch disk full and cannot open photoshop to fix it...

I cannot open photoshop because it says the scratch disk is full. I have been using photoshop (cs5) for 10 years and never had this problem. I recently installed cs5 on my Windows 7 computer and it worked for a few weeks, then this problem arose. I cannot afford a new version at this time but would like to use cs5 on this computer and I know it can work because it did for several weeks but now it won't and I can't follow the typical steps to remedy this situation because I cannot open photoshop. Please help!

Hi there,
The tips outlined below came from this site.
First, if you can open Photoshop, check to see what hard drive is set up as your Photoshop scratch disk. To do this, go to Photoshop > Preferences > Performance. Then look under Scratch Disks to see which one you are using and how much free space it has. (FYI—I've included these steps for future visitors to this thread.)
Option 1: Delete some files
If your scratch disk is very full (or the free space is low), try deleting some unwanted files from the drive (for me, "Macintosh HD" as seen in the image above) to make room for new ones.
Option 2: Delete temp files
Search your computer for temporary files. These files are typically named ~PST####.tmp on Windows and Temp#### on Macintosh, where #### is a series of numbers. These are safe to delete.
Option 3: Defragment your Hard Disk
Instructions for Windows
Instructions for Mac
I hope one of these methods works for you!

Photoshop 7: "Scratch Disk Full" with a 1.T HD (too big?)

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