Recently my system has become crammed with a lot of files and not a lot of free disk space, leaving me with little headroom for Photoshop CC to work efficiently. In this case, especially on some big render jobs (3D, Video and also some large image files), Photoshop will tell me that it’s run out of scratch disk space, and the job in hand will halt.
Typically the scratch disk is the same as the startup disk (where Photoshop is running), but this can be changed or complimented.
I could delete some files, or move some files to another disk and free up some disk space from the initial scratch disk, but there were some important customer data on the drive and I wanted to keep it local.
In this case, I wanted to compliment my current Scratch disk with more space, and I can do this by plugging an external drive(s) into the computer and telling Photoshop to use this as a scratch disk as well. Photoshop will automatically place any scratch data (essentially working data) to the drive.
Under the Preferences in Photoshop, there is an option for Scratch disks, open this configuration setting. You can below, that by default the main drive where Photoshop is installed is selected and is the start disk.
To extend the scratch disk and choose a different one or to compliment the existing start up disk, plug the drive in to the computer, then re-select the Scratch Disk preferences and it should appear in the list. Once selected, Photoshop will then allocate the space and give you more headroom.
It’s the SWPP Societies convention this weekend, if you are planning to attend, Adobe has a seminar room with free talks for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For more details follow this link. If you are coming, pop by and say hello.