Hard Drive space vs Scratch Disk

[LeicaM13]

Hello All,

Help me to understand the difference between hard drive space and scratch disk. I have an Imac with 20 gigs running OSX 10.3.9 It says I have 1.99 GB available. And yet when I tried to perform an image change in Photoshop Elements, I got an error message that my scratch disk was full.

Thanks for the tips,

LeicaM13

 

[iGary]

The scratch disc is an area set aside for Photoshop to work with files in.

You need a bigger HD, or you need to erase some files - burn to CD, etc.

 

[LeicaM13]

iGary, thanks for the reply. Why would 1/10th of my hard disk being available (2GB) not be enough to work a 24MB file?

LeicaM13

 

[SummerBreeze]

iGary, thanks for the reply. Why would 1/10th of my hard disk being available (2GB) not be enough to work a 24MB file?

LeicaM13

Probably because OS X uses virtual memory. If the actual memory gets all used up by your running programs, it will start to use the hard drive as virtual memory. The best way to remedy your problems would be to buy an external hard drive and some more memory, or clear up a bunch of space on your computer.