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Can I Use an External Hard Drive as a Scratch Disk Photoshop?

Last updated on September 23, 2022 @ 9:07 pm

Most external hard drives are large enough to hold a significant amount of data, which makes them ideal for use as a scratch disk. You can use an external hard drive for Photoshop’s scratch disk in two ways: by connecting the drive to your computer using a USB cable, or by using a network-attached storage (NAS) device.

Using an external hard drive as a scratch disk is a good way to improve the performance of Photoshop, especially if your computer’s internal hard drive is getting full. When Photoshop uses a scratch disk, it stores temporary data on the disk so that it doesn’t have to keep access the main hard drive every time it needs to read or write data.

This can help speed up Photoshop’s performance.

If you’re using an external hard drive as a scratch disk, it’s important to make sure that the drive is fast enough to keep up with Photoshop. Most external hard drives are designed for general use and aren’t always the fastest devices.

Look for an external hard drive that specifically advertises itself as being fast. SSDs are usually the fastest type of external hard drive, but they’re also more expensive than regular hard drives.

PRO TIP: Warning – Using an external hard drive as a scratch disk for Photoshop can be risky. If the drive is not properly formatted or if it is not compatible with your computer, it could cause data loss or corruption.

You can use an external hard drive as a scratch disk in Photoshop by connecting the drive to your computer using a USB cable. Once the drive is connected, open Photoshop and go to Preferences > Performance.

In the Scratch Disk section, click the drop-down menu and select the external hard drive that you want to use. Make sure that the checkbox next to “Allow Photoshop to use this Scratch Disk” is selected, then click OK.

You can also use a NAS device as a scratch disk for Photoshop. NAS devices are similar to external hard drives, but they connect to your network instead of your computer. This means that you can access the NAS device from any computer on your network. To use a NAS device as a scratch disk, open Photoshop and go to Preferences > Performance.

In the Scratch Disk section, click the drop-down menu and select “Network.” Click Browse, then navigate to the NAS device on your network and select it.

Can I Use an External Hard Drive as a Scratch Disk Photoshop?

Yes, you can use an external hard drive as a scratch disk for Photoshop.

Morgan Bash

Morgan Bash

Technology enthusiast and Co-Founder of Women Coders SF.