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                <h1>
                    Assigning scratch disks
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                <div><p>When your system does not have enough RAM
to perform an operation, Photoshop uses a proprietary virtual memory
technology, also called scratch disks. A <dfn class="term">scratch disk</dfn> is
any drive or drive partition with free memory. By default, Photoshop
uses the hard drive on which the operating system is installed as
the primary scratch disk. </p>
<p>Photoshop detects and displays all available internal disks in
the Preferences panel. Using the Preferences panel, you can enable
other scratch disks to be used when the primary disk is full. Your
primary scratch disk should be your fastest hard disk; make sure
it has plenty of defragmented&#160;space available. </p>
<p>The following guidelines can help you assign scratch disks:</p>
<ul><li><p>For best performance, scratch disks should be on a different
drive than any large files you are editing.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Scratch disks should be on a different drive than the one
used for virtual memory.</p>
</li>
<li><p>RAID disks/disk arrays are good choices for dedicated scratch
disk volumes.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Drives with scratch disks should be defragmented&#160;regularly.</p>
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