external storage hard drive used as scratch disk

RR
Posted By
richard_recard
Oct 20, 2006
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333
Replies
2
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Closed
Anyone know? – If an external storage hard disk drive (using Firewire or USB), such as from Iomega, can be used as a scratch disk for processing large (bitmap) files?
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Daryl_Pritchard
Oct 21, 2006
Richard,

Yes, it can be used, but with a signficant loss of Photoshop performance, since neither Firewire nor USB2 offer an interface with the throughput of SATA/IDE/SCSI. I purchased a portable 7200rpm Firewire/USB2 combo drive to use with my latop as a 2nd hard drive and PS scratch disk, and found that even in contrast to using only the single internal drive, the amount of time to complete a task in Photoshop that made use of the scratch disk (sorry, I don’t recall what exactly I did), was double or more. I do not recommend using an external disk drive for a PS scratch disk unless it uses a SATA, IDE, or SCSI connection. I think you’d be better off reserving it for data storage to free up space on your internal drive.

Regards,

Daryl
RR
richard_recard
Oct 21, 2006
Daryl,

Perfect reply. Exactly what I needed to know. Can’t thank you enough.

Richard

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