Sometimes, when you attempt to complete an action in Adobe Photoshop, you may encounter an error message that states, “Could not complete your request due to there is a full disk on the disk.”
To avoid getting the Photoshop scratch disk from being full To prevent this error from happening, you must alter the way Photoshop utilizes the memory of your computer.
Why does Photoshop Scratch Disk Is Full error occur?
The Photoshop scratch disk is the hard disk. Photoshop makes use of the hard drive as temporary swap space or virtual memory when your system does not have sufficient memory to run an operation. If you have only one partition or hard drive within your PC the scratch disk will be the one on which you will find the OS can be installed (for instance that’s the C drive on the Windows computer).
When the drive is unable to hold a sufficient amount in space it stops Photoshop from running effectively. For instance, if Photoshop shuts down in between editing sessions this unintentional shutdown can create large temporary files within the drive’s scratch disc. Therefore, Photoshop may not be in a position to restart, which means you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting on your hard drive.
How to Fix the Photoshop Scratch Disk Full Error
Follow these steps following the steps provided to diagnose the scratch disk problem in Photoshop.
- Clear the disk. Clean up some room on your Mac or Windows drive which is described as scratch disks in the Photoshop Preferences. To get the best results, you should use a no-cost disk space analysis such as Disk Cleanup.
- Remove temporary Photoshop files. You are able to safely erase temporary files that are associated with Photoshop in order to clear disk space. Temporary Photoshop files generally called “PST” ####.tmp in Windows as well as temp #### for Mac (where #### is a sequence of numbers).
- Defragment your hard disk. It’s possible to experience the scratch disk full error if the scratch disk drive is full and has plenty of space. This is due to the fact that Photoshop requires unfragmented, contiguous available space in the drive that is scratched. If you receive a problem when your scratch drive displays an adequate amount of free space, use disk defragmentation software.
- Remove the Photoshop cache. If you are able to open Photoshop remove temporary files inside the program by selecting the Edit menu > Purge and then All (on Windows) or Photoshop CC > Purge > All (on Mac).
- Clear Crop tool values. If you encounter an error while cropping images in Photoshop the error may be because the settings on the options bar of the Crop tool are in incorrect units. For instance, the entry of dimensions as 1200×1600 when units have been set for inches rather than pixels results in the possibility of a huge file which could result in the scratch disk being a full message. To avoid this issue make sure you select the option to clear in the Options bar following the selection of the Crop tool.
- Modify your Photoshop Performance settings. Click edit > preferences > performance (on Windows) or Photoshop CC > Preferences > Performance (on Mac), then adjust the sliders under Memory Usage to increase the amount of RAM Photoshop can utilize.
- Add or modify other scratch disks. If you can, create a new partition on your hard drive to accommodate your Photoshop scratch disk. While Photoshop works with just one scratch disk in the partition of the system, you may enhance performance by making the scratch disk make it the speediest drive on your system.
To alter the location of the scratch disk, and create additional scratch disks, you must use Photoshop Preferences:
On Windows on Windows, go to edit and then Settings and then scratch disks then use Alt+Ctrl.
On macOS On macOS, click Photoshop on macOS, select Photoshop>> preferences and then Scratch Disks or use Command+Option.
