You're absolutely correct, Cotty ... the way one uses levels can increase file size substantially, as you say the number of history levels one is using, initial file size, whether one or more files is open (it's not unusual to work with a duplicate of the file on which you're actually making corrections and adjustments, memory allocated to the operating system, whether or not other programs are open, and so on.
And something else that is often overlooked: the windows paging or swap file should not be on the same disk as the scratch disk, especially if the file is set up as a dynamic file, which grows and shrinks, and moves around on the disk. That can very easily cause a conflict with the PS scratch files if the two must be on the same disk. I inadvertently had a conflict between the two, before I knew about the scratch disk really needing its own space, and believe me, it was not a pleasant event. The thing is that it may not always be possible to have "enough memory" with PS, so it's ALWAYS better to have a second drive for the scratch. shel 100% in agreement Cotty wrote: > > On 14/1/04, [EMAIL PROTECTED] disgorged: > > >If you have to swap to disk, then putting the Photoshop scratch space > >on a different physical drive takes some of the pain away. But it's > >far better to have enough memory in the first place, and never going > >to disk at all. Even the fastest disk transfer speed is still much > >slower than main memory speeds. Try to get more memory first; a second > >drive is a palliative, not a solution. > > As I understand the way Photoshop works, this is not correct. It is not > the user that decides if Photoshop has to swap to disk, it is Photoshop. > And it will readily do so depending on a number of factors including > levels of history vs file size etc. I am prepared to stand corrected, but > I am pretty certain that it works this way. Hard drive speed is not as > important as some indicate; Photoshop craftily utilises the Scratch > Disk(s) to enable optimum performance. Using a second drive is very > important - selecting the startup disk as a Scratch Disk will slow > performance.
