Photoshop Scratch Disk?

MemoriesRemainMemoriesRemain Registered Users Posts: 17 Big grins
edited November 28, 2014 in Finishing School
I have My scratch disk set to my external 1TB drive, I have noticed that it creates folders typically more than one . They are empty and they don't seem to delete on their own and I was wondering if there is a way to have this done . I will include a screen shot, any advice/input much appreciated.

Comments

  • pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,694 moderator
    edited November 28, 2014
    Is your external hard drive that you are using for a scratch disk, also filled with other folders? I think that is your issue. I think PS is creating a folder because it sees other data on your disk

    I am not sure i understand using an external drive for a scratch disk unless you are on a very fast connection like eSata or Thunderbolt as most external connections are going to slow you down, You are using USB 3.0 maybe?

    I have a dedicated 500 Gb scratch disk in one of my desktops, and I do not have any files on it other than what PS puts on it for the scratch usage. I have never looked at it for other files, maybe I should do that.

    With the price of RAM these days, I doubt my scratch disk even gets much use, since I have at least 16Gb RAM in my machines - even my laptop now.


    I think if I had to use a disk with other data on it, I would save the data somewhere temporarily, and re-partition my drive as two volumes, one for my scratch drive and one for my data storage to keep them entirely separate. I would be concerned about data corruption if it lived on a disk used as a scratch disk.

    Maybe some of the geeks here will know more about these risks ( pro or con ) than I do.

    A brief blog by John Nack - https://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/09/how-to-set-up-a-great-photoshop-machine.html

    Another thought is that your scratch disk needs large areas of contiguous empty space, so if your scratch disk is filled with lots of the files, you may have enough space on your drive , but not enough contiguous space, space in one continual block, so that PS can write to it quickly and continuously. As I said, it is usually suggested that you use a separate, distinct partition for a scratch drive. That way ALL the reading and writing on that drive by PS is not interrupted by other files seeking and writing.

    The recommendation today for scratch disk is to use an SSD, but that would be an internal SSD or at least one with a backplane type connection or a Thunderbolt connection - even USB 3.0 is going to slow down reading and writing to an SSD. Indeed, Adobe even recommends using your boot drive if it is an SSD and large enough -

    more here - https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
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