Start Up Disc Full

SE
Posted By
Seth_Eskigian
Oct 15, 2008
Views
628
Replies
20
Status
Closed
I am totally baffled…
I keep getting an error message that pops up saying that my Start-Up Disc is "Dangerously Low" and yet I have over 300 Gigs available.
I have a 500 Gig Drive with 311 gigs available.

When I am using Aperture and attempting to open/edit file in PS CS2 I get error message saying disc is full. can’t complete this operation.

I downloaded this software Disc Inventory X, and it just confirms for me that I have used about 151 Gigs of my 500 gig drive… so, why the error message? I can’t perform basic operations at the moment… hmmm?

I mean, I’d be happy to dump stuff to an external drive, but I don’t see what good that will do since I have enough space on the drive…
Any answers? I would TOTALLY APPRECIATE IT!

If this helps, here is my configuration:
G5 Dual 2.0 Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2 GB RAM

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Buko
Oct 15, 2008
well the system writes SWAP files to that disk (virtual memory)

If its your only drive Photoshop is writing Scratch (virtual memory)) to that drive.

and I don’t use Aperture but it is probably also using the same drive for scratch. so you are filling up your HD with temp files.
NK
Neil_Keller
Oct 15, 2008
Seth,

Have you done any system maintenance? Also, be aware that CS2 can be problematic under Mac OS X 10.5.x and, as it is long discontinued software, Adobe will not be providing any fixes.

Note: 2 GB RAM is not very much for running Photoshop, your OS and any other open apps, utilities, or background operations.

Neil
R
Ram
Oct 15, 2008
Photoshop needs to see unfragmented available disk space to build its scratch disk.
PS
Paul_Squassoni
Oct 21, 2008
I have the same problem. Photoshop CS3 will no longer perform any operations because the scratch disk is full. As soon as Photoshop flakes out, so does Aperture.

I have an intel MacBook Pro w/ a 111Gb internal drive with 28 Gb available, a 150 Gb external drive with 36 Gb available. I just used iDefrag on the internal drive.

Available RAM is 1963 Mb, Photoshop can use 69% or 1354 Mb. There are 20 history states and 6 cache levels.

This is a relatively new problem and has me baffled. Cropping a 2.9 Mb file is not a big deal. Photoshop CS# is somehow screwing with some system setting. Any ideas on where to look?

mahalo,
paul
SW
Scott_Weichert
Oct 21, 2008
111Gb internal drive with 28 Gb available

You are getting DANGEROUSLY low on disk space. You should always leave approximately 20% of any disk empty.
NK
Neil_Keller
Oct 21, 2008
Paul,

As Scott says, except that you will probably experience some slowdowns once your drives pass the 50% full mark (or so). Your current external drive is also choking.

If you’re not up to replacing your internal drive, then purchase a large FireWire external drive. And if you don’t mind paying a premium, you can get them in a pretty compact size these days.

Photoshop loves RAM and capacious hard drives.

Neil
PS
Paul_Squassoni
Oct 21, 2008
Thank you Scott and Neil!

My external drive is actually my backup drive, with a partition available for storage of part of my photo library. I didn’t realize that I would be outgrowing my system so quickly. Tough call at this point to upgrade, add or replace.

It does turn out that the internal volume needs repair, I’ve done enough things to my system lately (deleting, moving, referencing, defragging) that I can’t in good conscience blame Photoshop for the problem.

Curse you both! I have to go spend some money…<grin>

mahalo,
paul
PS
Paul_Squassoni
Oct 22, 2008
Latest is that Disk Utility found an "orphaned indirect node i90931" (number may not be correct since it is from memory) in *BOTH* the internal hard drive and the backup volume on the external drive.

Disk Utility said it fixed it in both volumes, but the original problem remains that Photoshop CS3 thinks the scratch disk is full, and then Aperture flips out and says the hard drive is full.

I will try Disk Warrior next, I guess…
SW
Scott_Weichert
Oct 22, 2008
Paul,

If you are getting the disk full message, it means just that – there is not enough free space to complete the operation. Be aware I’ve seen files that are relatively small (200-300mb) balloon to dozens of GB when performing some operations. Things like Smart Object will further increase the amount of free space needed to complete some operations.

While everything you are doing will certainly help performance, it’s very unlikely that it will eliminate the "disk full" message. You need to physically clear more hard drive space to correct that problem.
AW
Allen_Wicks
Oct 22, 2008
The OP (Seth) has 300+ GB of free space and is running OS 10.5.5. Fragmentation with such a large free space is unlikely to be the problem.

Seth-

Such an error message IS a problem, and you should make sure that data files from that drive are thoroughly backed up. Then run Disk Warrior; if you do not own it, buy it. DW will do all kinds of good things, including defragment even though IMO that is not likely to be the problem. Make sure that the DW version you buy is fully compatible with the OS version you are running.
B
Buko
Oct 22, 2008
When I am using Aperture and attempting to open/edit file in PS CS2 I get error message saying disc is full. can’t complete this operation.

To me this says Aperture is filling the drive with Aperture scratch. and choking out Photoshop.
AW
Allen_Wicks
Oct 22, 2008
Aperture does not use scratch like PS does. However Aperture gobbles RAM and demands hard on the GPU. Folks with just 2 GB RAM can "run" either app if hard drive(s) are adequate but should not try to run both apps concurrently. And PS RAM allocation must be appropriate (trial-and-error, but 65% perhaps).

When feasible, 8 GB RAM and more is desirable for such apps.
B
Buko
Oct 22, 2008
Allen I’m such SWAP is written if no RAM is available.
P
PECourtejoie
Oct 22, 2008
"Cropping a 2.9 Mb file is not a big deal"

Look at your units for the crop tool… Aren’t you trying to crop the image, say at 1600 In x 1200 In at 300ppi?
PS
Paul_Squassoni
Oct 22, 2008
aloha all,

I didn’t mean to hijack Seth’s posting, but I may have found the answer.

Thanks to all of you for your help! Although I have now discovered that the problem has nothing to do with my disks or directories, all the suggestions have caused me to clear up space, defrag my disk, and repair my directories! All very good things I might not have done otherwise.

It turns out that the problem is in how Photoshop interprets a crop. Despite using Photoshop for years, I had never encountered quite this set of circumstances before. I’ve attached the explanation in Adobe TechNote 330796, which I had to go to Adobe support to find.

mahalo!
paul

——–
Adobe TechNote 330796:

Error: "Scratch disk is full" when cropping an image with dimensions and resolution specified in crop options (Photoshop CS)

Issue

When you try to crop an image in Photoshop CS and enter width, height and resolution values in the crop options, you receive the error that the scratch disk is full and are unable to crop the image.

Details

If you leave the crop options blank, you can crop the image successfully.

Solution

Do one of the following:

Solution 1: Specify measurement units when cropping.

Enter the desired measurement units in the width and height crop options. For example, enter 100px for pixels, or 1in for inches.

Solution 2: Set the default measurement units.

To set the default measurement units:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Rulers (Windows) or Photoshop > Preferences > Units & Rulers (Mac OS).

2. Select a measurement unit for Type under the Units section of the Preferences dialog box. For example, select Pixels.

3. Click OK.

Background information

The error, "Scratch disk is full", occurs when the resulting file is too large for the scratch disk to process. This error can occur if a file was created in pixel dimensions but the crop options are entered in inches (the default measurement unit). For example entering 700 x 800 in the width and height crop options will default to inches, instead of pixels. You need to specify 700px x 800px to achieve the desired result or specify pixels as the default measurement unit in the Preferences. If you leave the crop options blank, then Photoshop CS will crop the image to the specified area using the same measurement units in which the image was created.
P
PECourtejoie
Nov 3, 2008
I said so…
B
Buko
Nov 3, 2008
Yeah nobody reads post 14
PS
Paul_Squassoni
Nov 4, 2008
Mahalo PECourtjoie and Buko. I did read the post, but the way the question was phrased threw me a bit, since that was NOT what I was trying to do. It’s a bit of a leap to understand that Photoshop thought I was drastically increasing the size of the file when I thought I was cropping it smaller. <grin>

PECourtjoie was right, though! I realized it as soon as I found the Tech Note.

mahalo,
paul
P
PECourtejoie
Nov 4, 2008
Still, would you have found it if it was in the FAQ?
PS
Paul_Squassoni
Nov 4, 2008
I think I might have. I always search the FAQs and previous posts on multiple forums before posting anything myself.

In fact, I haven’t posted a question in years!

(Disclosure: 24 years in IT analysis has given me relatively decent research skills…<grin>)

mahalo,
paul

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