Transform & start up disk space confusion

NM
Posted By
Nicholas_Musgrave
Dec 22, 2008
Views
508
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I’m working on a 420 mb 6000 x 3375 image with some 20 layers. My scratch disk is set to my mac hard drive which has 107Gb free space.

I drag a small (870×490) grpahic on its layer from another jpg and try to manipulate it with the transform tool. It allows me to resize (ie holding the shift key down) but when I try to change the perspective (holding the command key down and dragging the corners) photoshop consistently gives me one of the following errors: "Your startup disk is almost full." or Could not transform because the result would be too big."

The problem only seems to be with this new layer. I can still transform other layers without problem. Is it possible that the jpg with this graphic is corrupt in some way? If so is there anyway to get it repaired? Unfortunately this is the only copy version available to me.

I have reset my photoshop permissions and repaired my mac hard permissions. I am using CS3 extended on a MacPro 2 x 3 Ghz with 9 Gb memory running 10.5.6

Any thoughts on what is going on here and what a solution might be would be much appreciated… this is the last (but sadly vital) little bit of graphics before the image is finished…

thanks
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NM
Nicholas_Musgrave
Dec 22, 2008
I should add that I took a couple of other small steps that might be contributing to the issue after dragging the new layer in and using transform: 1) I made a elliptical marque, 2) I used brush to paint in a little colour. 3) I made a layer mask 4) I inverted the selection on the marquee, 5) I filled the inverted selection on the layer mask with black.

I’ve tested he behaviour of transform at each of these steps and the problem seems to kick in after step 3.
JJ
Jim_Jordan
Dec 22, 2008
My scratch disk is set to my mac hard drive which has 107Gb free space.

Is this your system drive? If so, why would you buy a MacPro with 9 GB of RAM but not get a separate scratch drive? That’s like buying a sports car without tires.

Also, ‘107Gb free space’ does not necessarily mean ‘107Gb contiguous free space.’ Consider checking and defragmenting the drive.

Using a separate scratch drive may help but if you search the forums and Google for your error message, there may be plenty of other answers to the issue.
B
Buko
Dec 22, 2008
Your system drive is too small and you need a scratch drive
NM
Nicholas_Musgrave
Dec 22, 2008
I’m not sure I fully understand the distinction between System Disk, Scratch Disk and Startup Disk. I do have other drives on my Mac… is there a benefit in setting the Scratch Disk in Photoshop preferences to something other than the ‘System Disk’ ie the disk the OS is operating from …and has photoshop installed on?
JJ
Jim_Jordan
Dec 22, 2008
Startup disk = system disk.

A scratch drive should be a different disk.

This article is intended for CS4 < http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb 404440&sliceId=1%27> but the scratch disk section applies to all versions of Photoshop.

A scratch disk is for very quick reads/writes of temporary data. Your OS drive also does its own quick read/write of temporary data. If both Photoshop and the OS are doing these quick read/writes, they will war with each other for the use of one drive. This is why it is ideal to have a separate scratch drive from the system drive.
NM
Nicholas_Musgrave
Dec 22, 2008
ahh… good to know, I had been working on the assumption that there would be an advantage in having the scratch disk and system disk as the same… will try pointing the scratch at my other drives and see if this cures this little bug..

thanks
JS
Jeff_Schewe
Dec 22, 2008
I had been working on the assumption that there would be an advantage in having the scratch disk and system disk as the same…

And that is exactly 180º the wrong thing to do (if you have a choice)…

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