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User profile for user: lindsay Braun
lindsay Braun Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

Scratch disks & Startup Disk FULL---WHAT DO I DO??

Ok, I am a graphic designer and have never had this problem. I am fairly proficient with my computer, but some things I'm not sure how to fix properly.

So I keep getting an error message telling me that both my startup disk and my scratch disks are full and that the program needs to close, and I need to delete files from my hard drive. I get this part. I have deleted files and I own a 500GB iBook external hard drive I keep any and all files that are completed on this external.

I have read through some other forums with people in similar situations, and I just frankly not sure what all of it means.

Is my scratch disk and my startup disk different?

What do I need to do besides deleting files off and onto my external, Is there some sort of secret folder i need to clean?

I run Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign regularly but those are really the only large programs in use. i even went as far as to move the rest of my Adobe Suite (Dreamweaver, Flash and others) off my laptop hard drive to my external just because I won't be using those anytime soon.

i have also read around about some people hooking their external up with the system prefs to do something with that...is that a solution? and how do I do that?

I think it all has just confused me even further into what is the proper way to fix all of this. I am alot better with computers than most women, but even this has thrown me for a loop! Help would be much appreciated!


Current HD-
HD Capacity: 74.41 GB
Used HD: 73.7GB
Available: 723.3 MB

PowerBookg4, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Nov 6, 2008 2:52 PM

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User profile for user: eww
eww
User level: Level 9
53,028 points

Posted on Nov 6, 2008 4:49 PM

Hi, Lindsay, and welcome to Apple Discussions. Your scratch disk(s) is/are designated in the Preferences of the applications that use them. A scratch disk is space on a hard drive that an application sequesters and uses for its own temporary files. I'm not familiar with recent versions of Illustrator or any version of InDesign, so I don't know whether they use scratch disks, but Photoshop certainly does. If there's only one hard drive available when PS is opened, PS uses that drive as its scratch disk, even if some other drive that was available at another time has been designated in its Preferences (as might be the case if an external hard drive was connected when the selection was made, and you chose the external as the scratch disk). PS must have a scratch disk to use at all times or it won't run. It will warn you if your scratch disk is too full.

Your internal hard drive is definitely in a state of emergency right now. You must delete at least 8-12GB of files from it ASAP. Your OS needs a minimum of 10% of the startup hard drive as free space for its own use, and will warn you when the startup disk is too full. Your applications' scratch disk space needs are in addition to what the OS requires, so you should ideally keep 12-15GB of free space on your nominal 80GB (actually about 75GB) internal hard drive at all times. If I were you, I would immediately order a 160GB or 250GB hard drive to replace the present small internal drive, which you've clearly outgrown.

To free up space on your internal drive, trash any large nonessential files and copy large important files to your external drive, then trash the originals. Don't bother deleting or moving small files; you'll have to handle many thousands of them to make a dent in your problem. Start with the biggest items on your drive: movies, music, photos, huge graphic files, and giant applications that you can easily reinstall from source CDs (iDVD is a great app to start with, since it and its supporting files occupy several GB of disk space). At first you'll need to be careful not to try to empty too much from the Trash at once, because (ironically) emptying the Trash requires disk space, and you won't have any to spare until you've trashed a few big items and emptied them one or two at a time.

There are some other good tips for freeing up space on your hard drive in this article:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
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User profile for user: eww
eww
User level: Level 9
53,028 points

Nov 6, 2008 4:49 PM in response to lindsay Braun

Hi, Lindsay, and welcome to Apple Discussions. Your scratch disk(s) is/are designated in the Preferences of the applications that use them. A scratch disk is space on a hard drive that an application sequesters and uses for its own temporary files. I'm not familiar with recent versions of Illustrator or any version of InDesign, so I don't know whether they use scratch disks, but Photoshop certainly does. If there's only one hard drive available when PS is opened, PS uses that drive as its scratch disk, even if some other drive that was available at another time has been designated in its Preferences (as might be the case if an external hard drive was connected when the selection was made, and you chose the external as the scratch disk). PS must have a scratch disk to use at all times or it won't run. It will warn you if your scratch disk is too full.

Your internal hard drive is definitely in a state of emergency right now. You must delete at least 8-12GB of files from it ASAP. Your OS needs a minimum of 10% of the startup hard drive as free space for its own use, and will warn you when the startup disk is too full. Your applications' scratch disk space needs are in addition to what the OS requires, so you should ideally keep 12-15GB of free space on your nominal 80GB (actually about 75GB) internal hard drive at all times. If I were you, I would immediately order a 160GB or 250GB hard drive to replace the present small internal drive, which you've clearly outgrown.

To free up space on your internal drive, trash any large nonessential files and copy large important files to your external drive, then trash the originals. Don't bother deleting or moving small files; you'll have to handle many thousands of them to make a dent in your problem. Start with the biggest items on your drive: movies, music, photos, huge graphic files, and giant applications that you can easily reinstall from source CDs (iDVD is a great app to start with, since it and its supporting files occupy several GB of disk space). At first you'll need to be careful not to try to empty too much from the Trash at once, because (ironically) emptying the Trash requires disk space, and you won't have any to spare until you've trashed a few big items and emptied them one or two at a time.

There are some other good tips for freeing up space on your hard drive in this article:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
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Scratch disks & Startup Disk FULL---WHAT DO I DO??

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