Scratch Disks

[gazmoore1980]

Hello there, i'm new to Macs and new to this Forum so forgive me if i'm posting a question that has allready been on a few times before.

Can anybody please help with regards to Scratch Disks? I have a Powerbook and i have recently transferred all my large files onto an external hard drive meaning i only have software and ITunes library left on my computer but i am still unable to run photoshop properly when trying to alter my photographs.

I have never set up scratch disks but i keep getting an error message telling me they are full and that the command can not be completed because of this.

How do i clear my scratch disks and where would they be stored on my computer???

thanks
G

 

[Macky-Mac]

This is from Photoshop "Help" and hopefully it'll give you some idea of what's happening;

"When your system does not have enough RAM to perform an operation, Photoshop and ImageReady use a proprietary virtual memory technology, also called scratch disks. A scratch disk is any drive or drive partition with free memory. By default, Photoshop and ImageReady use the hard drive on which the operating system is installed as the primary scratch disk.

In the Plug‑ins & Scratch Disks preferences in Photoshop, you can change the primary scratch disk and designate a second, third, or fourth scratch disk to be used when the primary disk is full. Your primary scratch disk should be your fastest hard disk; make sure it has plenty of defragmented space available."



so, when your hard drive doesn't have enough free space for the scratch disk, then you get the message you're getting. You'll have to remove some files to free up space on the internal drive or connect an external drive with adequate free space

 

[gazmoore1980]

Thanks for this.

Unfortunately i went into the scratch disks section in Photoshop and changed all the 4 settings to read 'Macintosh HD'.

There were 4 options and the first one read 'start up disk'. i changed it to Mac HD and now photoshop will not load back up as it cant seem to find plug-ins!

Have i messed it up or is there away to change it back. Or, has my actions got anything to do with Photoshop not loading up at all or ist just a coincidence that it wont start??

I tried in vain for about 2 hours last nite trying to find away to open up photoshop but to no avail.

Can anybody help???

 

[theISHkid]

Is there not any way for you to point back to the plug ins folder?

 

[gazmoore1980]

well is this on 'finder'?? I cant get onto photoshop at all to mess about with the plug-ins. not sure what you mean. Sorry for being so dumb but i'm new to all this and literally dont know what i'm doing! never had a mac before!

thanks

 

[Macky-Mac]

some more info might help.....how much RAM do you have? how much free space is there on your HD? what version of photoshop?

I've only seen the message you reported in your original post when the HD didn't have enough room for photoshop to operate and it was resolved by removing a lot of data files from the drive in order to create more free space. Have you tried removing A LOT of data files from that drive to make more space?

But.....then you say photoshop wont load because it cant find plug-ins? Is it giving you a message saying that's what's going on? You've also said that you moved a lot of files to another drive.....that makes me wonder if you accidentally moved some of the files that photoshop installed and needs in order to run.

If your start-up disk and "Mac HD" are the same disk, then I wouldn't think that changing the scratch disk assignment from one to the other would have created your problem.

Did you have photoshop running on this computer without any problems at some point?

Have you tried re-installing photoshop?