can't initialize Photoshop because disk is not available

After getting a message saying "scratch disk is full", I checked out Photoshop Help - assigning scratch disks and thought I'd attempt it:

 

a) under Photoshop CS preferences thought I was "reassigning scratch disks" as follows: 1. 320GbSeagate (additional internal hard

drive), 2. MacIntosh HD, 3. LaCie (external hard drive), 4. none

b) shut down computer and when I restarted, I went into administrator/utilities/disk utilities and did a verification and disk repair.

c) tried opening up Photoshop CS and got the window: "could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available"

 

So now I'm unable to access Photoshop CS. Can anybody help?

"Can anybody help? "

 

Photoshop support maybe? You do still have the original install disk,right?

nope.. I'm out of town with my laptop.. don't have install disk with me..

Have you tried erasing your Photoshop Prefs? Here's the path if you don't know it:

 

/Users/<<USERNAME>>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CS Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp

 

Once you delete it, empty your trash and reboot. Unless the installation is completely corrupt, Photoshop should boot normally,

though many (not all) of your settings will be returned to default.

 

Alternately, setup another User account and see if you can launch PS from there.

 

Sorry you're having troubles. Hope this helps.

 

TMC

It's good to etch TM's hint in your mind, even if you're not having problems. A corrupted preferences file seems to be the #1 cause of Photoshop problems, and I've erased mine a couple of times over the years.

Etched it is! Thanks TM.. erasing the photoshop prefs did the trick. I am now able to access photoshop. Still unable to

reassign the scratch disk to my other internal hard drive so a full scratch disk remains an issue but glad to have PS back.

Thanks again!

According to the Photoshop Help file you can reset preferences by:

 

"Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) as you start Photoshop or ImageReady. You are prompted to delete the current settings."

***phew*** Glad that worked. I'm still a little curious about the inability to access the internal drive; I wonder if it's possibly

formatted incorrectly? I'm glad you've got PS back up and running, though I know now that if you're running into the brick

wall that is no scratch disk space, that can be almost as frustrating as not having PS at all! Can you put the scratch disk

priority in a different order. Actually, the real question is, are you able to work now, or are you running into that wall?

 

Thanks Brooks, I did not know that key combo.

You're right, I am nose against that wall. I am unable to reassign the scratch disk to my other drive.. quite possibly a

formatting issue but we're getting into unknown territory for me.

 

Thanks Brooks.. good to know.

After getting a message saying "scratch disk is full", I checked out Photoshop Help

 

I had that once and I called Adode. They help by telling me to do just what TM had mentioned, erase the preferences of PS. One thing

they told me which could be of use in the future was (if you work on a Mac) you can set up another User Account which has just the

photoshop application, so basicly if all else fails you can still log in to your photoshop program even if your "normal" user is not working too

well. And if you set the right privillages you can access your files and edit them in the stand by photoshop too.

 

I have it as a back up, for emergencies only.

Here are a few things to try. These are largely band-aids, but if you're out of town, I'd like to hope we can at least get you up and running. The

good thing is we know how to get Photoshop back if this doesn't work.

<br><br>

1. I would start by changing the "firing order" of the scratch-disks. For now, I would leave the Seagate out of the sequence entirely, and put

the order "Startup > LaCie external > None > None." BTW, I just tried it with CS3, and it's allowing me to use my external 1TB USB for scratch

disk space, so hopefully that's an option.

<br><br>

2. A slightly messier fix would be to move as many things as you can onto either the external or the Seagate Internal. <b><big>Please only do

this if you're certain these other drives are operating normally outside of Photoshop. </big></b> I don't wanna be the guy who jacked up all

your files. In this case you would just leave your Scratch Disks as "Startup > None > None > None." Obviously moving files from drive to drive

increases the chances of something being corrupted or accidentally deleted, so please be careful. Leave System and Library files put; only

move working files that you created. If you don't recognize it, don't move it << actually, that's a good idea in general.

<br><br>

2b: Not knowing how big "Macintosh HD" is, if you don't have a whole lot of space on the startup volume to begin with, consider

decreasing your number of history states to 10 or 5 (default is 20 I believe). If you do this, be sure that you're not going to need a lot of

"Undos" or save files in stages in case you need to go back further than the History will allow. In this situation, save as often as possible.

<br><br>

3. <b><i>AS A LAST RESORT</B></I> you can get everything off of the Seagate, and reformat it. THIS WILL ERASE THE DRIVE, so make

sure nothing critical is left on it. Mac's "Disk Utility" (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility) will be able to do this (Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is

how mine is formatted and working fine. Again, LAST RESORT.

<br><br>

4. Finally, be sure that when you bang your fists in frustration, use a pillow or a nearby table. While the computers keyboard seems too

tempting to resist, you'll be bummed out later that the "Option" and "C" keys no longer work. ;).

<br><br>

BTW, I don't mean the bolds and italics to be rude, just figured it better to point out pitfalls ahead of time. <br><br>

Best of luck! Let us know how it all works out.<br><br>

Tim

How do you have an additional internal hard drive on a Mac laptop???

thanks TM.. back home and I removed a bunch of stuff off the Macintosh HD and was finally able to get the file open. Time

for an additional drive methinks. Really appreciate all your help.

 

Christina.. sorry for the confusion.. the internal hard drive is on my G5 at home. I have an external LaCie I use with both

the G5 and my laptop. The scratch disk problem was occurring on both computers.. I guess my file size was just too big.

I'm creating a photo collage with about 62 images and some text.. file size is 1.4Gb. Live and learn. Again, thanks all!

Yowza! 1.4 GB working file? That certainly clears up my other question.

 

FWIW, Western Digital's got a groovy 1TB external drive for about $200 US. If you're gonna keep working on those 600 DPI captures of the

Sistine Chapel, it sounds like it will be worth the investment! ;-)

 

Happy editing!

 

Oh, and of course you're very welcome.