Setting up a scratch disc on an external drive...

[munckee]

I just got a 12" powerbook to use as my primary design computer for a while. I'd like to set up a scratch disc for photoshop work.

Is it possible to set up a scratch disc on an external in such a way that while I'm home and the drive is plugged in, its recognized, but when I'm carrying the computer and working elsewhere, the computer realizes that the scratch disc isn't present?

I'm assuming a FW drive would be better for a scratch disc than a USB2 drive?

 

[munkees]

I'm assuming a FW drive would be better for a scratch disc than a USB2 drive?

Firewire is much better than USB2, as for the photoshop scratch disk, I can't help

 

[yellow]

Sorry, I don't think this is possible.

 

[munckee]

Ok, so what exactly would happen if I had a scratch disc set up on the external and then took my computer somewhere and used photoshop without the scratch disc? Would it just run really slow?

 

[yellow]

Possibly kernel panic. Spam your logs that the /var/vm was missing. Run really slowly. Behave strangely.

Anyway, can you even set up scratch on a firewire drive? It's not mounted at boot time, so there's no place for /var/vm to be pointed at.