By default, Photoshop will set your hard drive as the scratch disk. The purpose of the scratch disk is to set aside space for temporary storage. When Photoshop is closed properly, these files are deleted. The first thing you may want to consider is an additional physical internal hard drive specifically set aside and partitioned for use as a scratch drive. This will make sure that these files aren't placed onto your normal hard drive. There is a scratch disk preferences menu in Photoshop where you can change the location of the scratch disk.

If you aren't willing or able to get an additional hard drive, then you will need to clean out the hard drive, deleting the Photoshop temporary files in the scratch drive. If you are still getting the message, then you will need to create more room on your hard drive by removing more files. Back up and make copies of files and applications that aren't consistently used, remove what isn't needed, and the scratch disk should have plenty of room to do what it needs to. If you encounter a crash of Photoshop again, be sure to check the scratch disk and remove those temporary files to spare yourself the message in the future.

If you can't free up enough space on your hard drive, you should consider a network attached hard drive or server for your files. These systems are more affordable than you might think, and provide many additional benefits like more manageable backups and easily sharing files among multiple users. To ensure the best performance it's crucial to install a shared storage server and optimize your network so that it meets your team's needs. Small Tree makes it very easy to get the right solution. Just give us a call today at 866-STC-4MAC (866-782-4622) and find out how!

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