PhotoShop eats my memory!

[sai]

I don't really know how to explain this, but here it goes.

I have like 5.5 Gb free in my hard disk, I batch (rizes, adjustments, convert)

convert pictures from DNG to JPEG. There were like 100 pics. After converting 20

pictures it says something like: "can't continue no space in disk, scratches(?)

are full", and the disk has like 9MB. I run PS in a PC/XP, and in one disk (with

the 5.5Gb free) but store the resultring image in another disk (with loads of

space).

I guessing PS saves some info in some temporary file, because when I close PS

the disk is free again.

What can I do? Is there a way to batch without PS storing temporary file. I'll

never be capable of having 20Gb free in my disk only for PS to use them in

temporary files.

Any ideas or comments??

please...

[richsimmons]

Change the scratch drive to the disk with more space.

 

Under CS3 it's Edit->Preferences->Performance.

 

You'll see the memory usage, scrach disks, history/cache and gpu settings. Change the order of the scratch disk and maybe even turn off the smaller spaced on and restart PS.

[KenPapai]

5GB free on a hard drive is too small. You should at least be on a 100 - 200 GB working drive that's at least half empty for best results.

 

RAM is very important; alas you do not know how much RAM your PC has. If you are using PS versions 9 or 10 then 2GB of RAM is ideal.

[ronald_moravec1]

Clear the ps history after every few pics or get a Mac. They work all day without such problems. You can also reboot.

[Spearhead]

It's a disk space problem, not a platform problem. I know it's great to be a fanboy, but it doesn't help when people have real issues.

[robert_fisher4]

A scratch disk is a type of temporary file. It's what PS (and other programs) use when there isn't enough memory to hold everything that it's working on. Other programs just don't give you the option of where to set up the scratch disk. Ideally the scratch disk should be allocated to a different disk than you have PS installed on. So if you've got a C drive with PS installed on it and a D drive for files and such, make the D drive the scratch disk.

 

Under that same Performance tab mentioned by Rich, you'll see a RAM allocation as well. It will tell you how much RAM is available for PS. Set the amount of free RAM that PS can use to about 75% of what's available. It will give you an ideal range. That "ideal range" takes into account that other programs may be running concurrently as well as other considerations but you can go over that "ideal" if you want. What you see as available RAM will not be all that's installed on your machine. Some gets carved out for the operating system and is not available for other applications. Also, if you have more than 3GB installed and have the 3GB RAM switch turned on in the boot.ini menu (I expect that you don't and it only works in XP Pro, not Home. Don't know what the protocol is for Vista) you still won't see all the RAM available because XP will show a max. of 3.5GB installed but the full 4GB is still available (XP 32 can't use more than 4GB).

[sai]

Thanks a lot guys, Robert very informative, thank you, Rich as well.

[lauren_macintosh]

If your not carefull you will end up in the same mess I am in , I over load the 40gig H/D and it would not even defrag its self then it crashed I had to buy a newer and larger one and start all over again:

[robert_fisher4]

40 gig is pretty small by today's standards Lauren. With 200, 300 and larger drives being pretty cheap now it's not all that expensive to ramp up your storage capacity.

 

There's nothing that says everything has to be kept on a drive inside your computer either. Good archiving practices; either with external hard drives, optical disks or a combination of the two, will help keep your internal hard drives clean and help keep your computer running better.

[richsimmons]

You need to have at least 15% of your drive free to do a proper defrag.

[matt_kennedy1]

You could buy another hard drive. They are pretty cheap these days.