So I just installed a second internal 250GB SATA drive in my Mac and holy smokes Photoshop loves the empty scratch drive. I highly suggest anyone wanting a faster photoshop experiance to install a second fast drive, leave it empty and just use it as a scratch drive.

Today I was working with a 600MB file in photoshop and it was like working with a small web image, SWEET!

sure is nice eh!? gotta love having TONS of scratch disc space...photoshop FLIES!

We got to get this information to the commissioner, Robin.

600 MB file????

Holy crap, is this like a 5D RAW file on crack or something??

Well it was the combination of about 15 different 1DMKII RAW files combined into different layer groups for a client.

I've been meaning to do this and you just gave me the kick in the a** I needed.

thanks

DOOO IT! I put it off for months then finally bit the bullet... best $100 I ever spent... and I work with 6GB of RAM already and still with the full scratch disc, so much faster!!

Really...only $100. Did that include some super nerdy guy to install it?

I would love to do this if I could bring it into the apple store and get them to do it on the spot. Need to investigate!

LOL - No I was the nerdy guy that installed it

What kind of machine are you running dewdrop? Installing hard drives is so simple, no need to pay someone to do it.

how would an empty 300GB external firewire drive work as a scratch disk? Would the firewire be noticeably slower than the internal SATA drive? Iam only running a Macbook Pro that is why I ask....external is my only option right now.

Firewire would work better then nothing, just make sure you get a high speed drive with a good buffer.

that should be a big boost to your work flow time. With mine, it's like watching paint dry on a cold Alberta day.

Regards,
Phil Housley

Powerbook G4. You can imagine how slow CS2 is for me. There's got to be room for an additional drive on here right? Are installs on laptops as simple as desktops?

-Jess

I dont think there are slots for additional hard drives on laptops...that is why I was asking about the external firewire drives. But if there are then I'd love to know!

They make special devices so that if you remove your CD/DVD drive, you can then place an extra HD in the device, and into the slot the CD/DVD drive was removed from.

isnt that only for PC's though?

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/01/05/optibay/index.php

Interesting, thanks for the info.

I'd probably just use an external hard drive. Firewire is better than USB 2.0, though.

for those on a laptop with a expresscard/34 slot, pick up something like this for a faster external drive.
i believe all the macbook pros have that slot.
then you can get a sata2 external for, what i'm assuming will be, internal drive speed for a external.

I've been thinking of this too. I bought an internal drive for the purpose of a scratch drive, and was going to have that installed (by my brother). Then, there was a problem because I have both CD and DVD drives. I didn't have a port open. I contemplated taking out my CD drive. Then I didn't have a plate cover for the front of the computer. Then the ribon in the external drive didn't work. There were just too many things going wrong. So, I decided to buy a shell casing and use the drive externally, connected by a usb (I don't have fire wire).

Would this work, or be to slow with the usb conection?

You can use more than one scratch disk, as well, for an even bigger speedup. Not long ago, I pulled a pair of 40-gig drives from a machine during an upgrade, shoved them in my desktop, and they both became scratch drives.

It helps for 100+ megapixel panoramas, too...