I'm getting and error message that reads " scratch disk full" , how do I empty out my temp files ?

I'm running Mac OS 10.4.11 and cant figure out how to find and the TEMP files to empty them.

Cant anyone help me figure this out ?

As of now I cant even open up certain files what so ever.

Restart.

No good, but I realized that I'm using 54.84 of my laptops 56 Gigs. So I need to back up and delete a lot of stuff.

you need to keep all your pron on a separate disk Rich, it's taking up way too much room

Yeah thats always the case

Go to your home folder. If you open the HD it's on the side, I don't know what your name is but it will have the house graphic.

From there if you go to Library-preferences you should have an adobe ps folder I think temp items are kept in there. Not for sure though, take a look.

Went there but nothing.

Well what I did was remove all images from iphoto (3 years worth) and music from itunes and transferred them to my external HD. Then I downloaded OnyX and let that clean up everything it had to offer. Seems to be better now.

crazy Mac users...

I'm not at my Photoshop computer now (and you may already know this) but I believe you can switch from using virtual memory to RAM (if your computer can handle it) in Photoshop preferences. Good luck!

You can get an 1Tb external drive these days for $70-90. You should save all of you photos on one, and then buy another one to keep everything backed up.

Rich besides backing up to relieve the lack of internal hard disc space, may I suggest for you to buy an external with about 50-100gb free. If you already have a spare external HD just plug that in. Then go to Photoshop preference and set your scratch disk to the external. Make sure you are using FireWire 800 so the connection speed for transfer is good. This will basically hog that free space on your ext and it's always temporary only when you open a large file.

I have 3 external 1tb FireWire 800 drives for both back up and photoshop temp space. Hope that helps.

EDIT > PURGE > ALL

is your HD partioned?

No , I read that somehwere, what does this do and how do you do it ?

Does it have to be fire wire ?

I had my external plugged in and when I went to set the preference, it would only allow me to chose either the HD or startup

just asking. i wouldn't partition it.

i would get an external HD that you always keep connected. keep it empty and in you PS preferences set it as the default scratch disk. it doesn't have to be a huge HD, just something that is solely used for scratch disk purposes.

Use a cache cleaner like Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner to have the deep caches cleaned out. It's pretty painless and you can often regain tons of space lost due to memory cache and temp files not being properly cleaned away.

Also, I would even recommend getting a 16GB/32GB USB Flash drive and use that to store files you don't need on your hard drive. An external hard drive is a good option as well, but USB flash drives are shockingly cheap/fast nowadays and easier to carry around (no need for cables) when compared to an external hard drive.

Or, the other option (or maybe on top of this) is to get a RAM upgrade for your machine. RAM is very cheap as well and will ease the need for PS disk swapping.

Hope that helps!

now this depends on what version photoshop you have.
i only found out you can dedicate an external as scratch disc in CS4.
I am not sure whether cs3 can do that.
however, just to let you know, my files go up to 2gb, and takes over 100gb of virtual memory.
if your filesizes dont go as nasty as mine (I have like 100 layers sometimes) then I think you can do what Geo says and just back up.

another way you can alleviate some space is to copy all your itunes music onto an external and then redirect the music library to that folder. also I have my iphoto library on my external too. with those out of the way, i cleared up about 100-150gb.