Scratch Disk Problems

JB
Posted By
Jim_Bearcloud
Oct 7, 2005
Views
438
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Gentlemen

I was notsure how or where to submit this stupid little problem.

Maybe if this is the wrong address you could forward it to the proper place, or give me an address to send it to;

I have what seems like a scratch disk on my D; drive. . .there is a real lot of space taken up by a Photoshop file and I cant seem to remove it.

I have changed my scratch disk to a new drive, but can’t seem to get rid of the old one.

Is there a way I can delete the old one?

Thank you.

By the way, I am using Photoshop CS. . .a legal, registered, copy. Diskeeper sees this file as "reserved System Space" and my other tools program sees it as "FT Zone"
As it is taking up almost a third of that drive, I would obviously like to find out what it is, and ultimatly get rid of it.

Any ideas?

Jim
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RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 8, 2005
Any system specs? Did you close Photoshop? Is the file still there after that? What happens when you try to delete it? How do you normally shut down Photoshop?
Rob
JB
Jim_Bearcloud
Oct 8, 2005
Rob:

Thanks for replying to my mysterious file (which at this time, I have to believe is an old scratch disk) As far as system specs, I am using an "all Intel (motherboard and Pentium 4) computer. I have three drives and a cd-rom. I have had this file for a long time, but did’t really address it intel I was getting low on space, and added the third drive with no installation problems. I moved the reference to the drive with the file, and selected the new drive as my scratch disk drive. The file has not been erased.

The file remains after I close Photoshop.

I normally shut down Photoshop using the "exit" choice from the top menu. I know that the program is supposed to close the scratch after closing PS, but it doesn’t.

I can’t seem to manually delete the file since I can’t find any file name for it. I could be a hidden file. I am going to try to get my preferences shanged to show all hidden files, and then try to delete it.

I’m going to trry that right now. I will let you know.

Thanks

Jim
JG
John_Gregson
Oct 8, 2005
What’s the name of the file? When you look at the properties, what are the attributes? Is it possible that it was created by a different userid in which case you may not have the correct permissions to delete it?

John Gregson
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Oct 8, 2005
I can’t find any file name for it

Then how can you tell it’s there? If you navigate to it, what do you see? What is the file size?

Or do yo mean that it has no extention?

Rob
S
Stevekin1
Oct 8, 2005
The Photoshop Scratch disk is ‘virtual’ memory used for various functions and as an overspill when it has used all of the Ram allocated to it.
The scratch disk only remains in operation while Photoshop is running, when you close PS, is is ‘handed back’ to your computer system.
Designating the drive to use for the scratch disk is in fact only pointing to an area that PS can use and not creating a file or permanent space for it.
Subsequently, the file you are concerned about is likely to have nothing to do with Photoshop,or at least not the scratch disk.
The simple act of setting your new hard drive as the scratch disk means PS will no longer access the drive it used to be on. Unless you set that as the second, third or fourth scratch disk.
But as I said, this is just virtual memory, much as the Windows paging file, only not permanent.

You should be looking into the alternative suggestions made to you. Try changing the read only attributes in the properties of the file. Log in as the administrator to see if you can gain full access to your files. Or it could be something dodgy.
Try a full virus scan, spyware etc.
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 8, 2005
It is correct that the Photoshop Scratch disk is not a file but a file may be left on the designated drive if Photoshop, or an open image, has failed to close properly at some time in the past. This could be due to a variety of reasons. If hidden files are made visible it should be possible to see this file in Windows Explorer.

If it is visible you should be able to delete it, provided it is not set to read only.
JB
Jim_Bearcloud
Oct 8, 2005
Guys:

Thanks for all your help in this matter. I really appreciate it.

To answer you most recent questions, I am only assuming that it might be remnants of a scratch disc. This is the direction Adobe sent me to.

I know the "file" is huge. Maybe 20 or 30 gig. It shows up in Disk Keeper as MFT Zone or Reserved System Space in Vcom’s Fix-It 5.

I may be going off in the wrong direction, but the Tech Support for those programs are just giving me answers that were clearly showing that they had been giving advice without really reading my information that I had sent them. V-Com sked me how I’d discovered that I had a scratch on my hard drive when I had said that I was having a problem with Photoshop’s "scratch disk." They went on to say that I should dump the whole thing and buy a new hard drive.

Go figure!

Anyway, I really do appreciate the suggestions you guys have given me. I am not really a novice after starting out many, many years with a Commador 64. I am a custom photoprinter and use these programs many times during the day (and night). I just can’t realize that after spending over $600 I can not get any help fom my software venders.

I will stay in rouch.

Thanks again,

Jim
L
LenHewitt
Oct 8, 2005
Jim,

Diskeeper sees this file as "reserved System Space"<<

If you have a drive with a lot of files on it, the system space for the MBR etc. can get quite large, certainly upto 12% or 15%, although I’ve never seen the system using as much as 30% of a drive

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