In article , says
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Hunt,

Thanks for the reply.
I currently have two separate HD in my PC. I am not too familiar with some of the terms you use. Would it help for me to uninstall my PS copy and re-install it on the other physical HD where I only store/backup my pictures? This HD is a Seagate Barracuda 120Gig (currently only 19 Gig is taken) with a 8MB buffer.

Regarding "scratch disk" is this the same as the system cache? If it would be better to move this to my 120 gig HD, how can I do this? Appreciate your help.

Happy New Year!

Carlos C.

"Hunt" wrote in message

In article ,
says
...

I just installed PS CS for the first time. Right after installing it I got a
message telling me that it would be better to install it in a separate hard
drive since the one I was using already had (can not remember the note). If
I decided to keep it where it was it may run slow. Well, I note that when selecting different tools my system is slow. I am running PS on AMD Athlon 1800 with 768 RAM.

Any similar experience out there? Does moving the application to a separate
HD help?...a lot?

Thanks

Carlos C.

Carlos,

In very general terms, PS likes to have separate (physically separate HDDs for
OS & Apps v Scratch Disk) HDDs to work with. The larger/faster the better. Next, it loves RAM, lastly, it uses the processor. Without more info, I feel
that your best solution would be to have 2 physical (as opposed to "logical,"
i.e. partitions) HDDs and set up your OS and programs on one, reserving as much of the other, as is possible, for Scratch Disk space. More RAM will help,
as well. Beyond that, HDD additions (they are really cheap now), just for Scratch Disk is prudent. You might go a step further, and do a RAID for your
C:\ and a RAID for your D:\, placing the Scratch Disk on D:\. Also, think about additional RAM, if your MB supports it.

Just some heavy generalizations,
Hunt

Carlos,

Sorry if I confused you. That was not my intent. As jjs points out, leave PS where it is, on C:\. Set your other HDD (from your post, it appears that it IS a separate physical HDD and not just a partition of a single physical HDD).

No, your "System Cache" is not the same as Scratch Disk, though both perform the same basic function, virtual memory - System Cache for your OS, and Scratch Disk for PS. PS likes to have the Scratch Disk on a separate physical drive from the program, the OS and the OS's System Cache.

If I misread your reply, and you have only one physical drive, regardless of how it is partitioned, you might want to look into acquiring an additional HDD and set it up just for the PS Scratch Disk. One plus to having a separate physical drive as your Scratch Disk, is that when PS is done with a session, it removes the temporary files from that disk (or partition), so it is left empty, and you don't suffer from fragmentation of files, which can slow you down quite a bit, over time.

If this is still not clear, let me know. Though it is fairly simple, and with the cost of HDDs falling, if I've muddied the waters for you, it won't help a bit.

Hunt

Carlos C

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