scratch disk problem, Mac

[Sbrem]

I want to use an 500GB SSD that I have as a scratch disk, but I have to move the stuff on it to another drive to save it. Then I can erase the SSD so I can partition (2) it to use as a scratch disk for Photoshop and Illustrator, and put the stuff back on it that I moved so I could erase it. So before I screw it all up, does that sound correct to you folks versed in such things? It sounds right, but I wouldn't mind somebody else's opinion on that...

Steve

[Frog]

How about copying the contents to another drive rather than moving it? Although, done properly, a move should be fine, copying adds another layer of insurance. I'm a bit of a worrywart and really try to practice redundancy.

[Sbrem]

I was thinking of dragging the contents of the SSD that I want to erase to our Network Attached Storage (NAS). Isn't that the same thing as Copy/Paste? This is why I asked, it's the little things that can get ya...

Steve

[Frog]

I was thinking of dragging the contents of the SSD that I want to erase to our Network Attached Storage (NAS). Isn't that the same thing as Copy/Paste? This is why I asked, it's the little things that can get ya...

Steve

I'm not "Macish". In Windows, it offers the choice of move or copy.

[screenxpress]

1. If the data on the SSD is worth saving at all, there should ALREADY be a backup procedure being done on a SEPARATE media.
2. Copying or moving the data to another media to restructure the SSD is fine, BUT remember just because there are no moving parts on an SSD it does NOT mean it's a fail-safe media.  SSDs do go bad.  I've had a couple fail so far and it's a real pain when its the Windows drive.
3. Never hurts to have data cross-saved as much as possible.  I use Synchronicity (open source) software to regularly backup my data to a drive that lives in a safe when not in use.  Synchronicity is fast and checks/displays the folders/files that have been added, changed or deleted between the source and the backup target and then requires a user's click to go move forward with the process.  I'm on Windows, but it looks like the software has a download for Mac.

[Sbrem]

Thanks, the SSD in question is already a backup, but only about 20% is used. I have read about SSD's failing though it seems to be rare. My iMac has a 250 GB internal SSD, and is down to about 15% left, hence my consideration of using this extra drive as a scratch disk, for Photoshop and Illustrator (for the last couple of days, I can't "place", Illy's term for Import, a jpeg, png or even a psd. Well, that's just not right of course, so after a little digging I found a conversation stating that this probably my scratch disk getting too full, and currently, it's the main drive in the iMac. So, if I finish what I'm doing, reformat the external SSD, and make 2 partitions, I can use on for the external scratch disk, and the other partition for the stuff backed up on it originally. Damn, this is almost fun...

Steve

[screenxpress]

Thanks, the SSD in question is already a backup, but only about 20% is used. I have read about SSD's failing though it seems to be rare. My iMac has a 250 GB internal SSD, and is down to about 15% left, hence my consideration of using this extra drive as a scratch disk, for Photoshop and Illustrator (for the last couple of days, I can't "place", Illy's term for Import, a jpeg, png or even a psd. Well, that's just not right of course, so after a little digging I found a conversation stating that this probably my scratch disk getting too full, and currently, it's the main drive in the iMac. So, if I finish what I'm doing, reformat the external SSD, and make 2 partitions, I can use on for the external scratch disk, and the other partition for the stuff backed up on it originally. Damn, this is almost fun...

Steve

According to Google:
The bulk of HDD failures came after an extended period of time. When turning back the clock to look at drive failures after around 14 months, SSDs still fail less often, but not by very much—they have an annualized failure rate of 1.05% versus 1.38% for HDDs.Oct 4, 2021

I guess 1.05% is rare, but I've already had two SSDs fail. 

With 85% of a 250 Gig drive used, have you done any manual cleanup to free up unnecessary space?

[Sbrem]

Yes, I've started that too, but unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm very busy. But I got the external SSD erased and partitioned, moved the personal stuff back into it's own partition, and the second partition is assigned as the scratch disk for both PS and Illy. About every 6 months or so, I do a little house work getting rid of extraneous files. thanks for the help.

Steve

[inkman996]

Personally I would just install more drives instead of going through the partition efforts. Seems the more you do to a drive the more chances corruption can happen. Storage is pretty cheap right now. My main PC has 4 SSD's in it right now.

[Sbrem]

The SSD is mostly for scratch disk purposes, and after a little reading on it all, I'll be emptying it out once a week or so, depending on how much is in it. On a scratch disk, as I understand it, they are temp files, and can be dumped. I also put a smaller partition for the personal stuff I had. I will be getting a 1 TB for a scratch disk, but the fix I did got me back up and running over the weekend. Thanks for all the help and advice everyone.

Steve

[Admiral]

Thanks, the SSD in question is already a backup, but only about 20% is used. I have read about SSD's failing though it seems to be rare. My iMac has a 250 GB internal SSD, and is down to about 15% left, hence my consideration of using this extra drive as a scratch disk, for Photoshop and Illustrator (for the last couple of days, I can't "place", Illy's term for Import, a jpeg, png or even a psd. Well, that's just not right of course, so after a little digging I found a conversation stating that this probably my scratch disk getting too full, and currently, it's the main drive in the iMac. So, if I finish what I'm doing, reformat the external SSD, and make 2 partitions, I can use on for the external scratch disk, and the other partition for the stuff backed up on it originally. Damn, this is almost fun...

Steve

SSD lifespan isn't as great as the slow spinning drives, unless you are buying high quality SSDs with better memory that can handle way more writes.

Back when I built all of the artist computers I did SSD for the main drive, then a 1TB drive for backup / scratch disk work.  Today I would use only SSDs but make sure I would get NVMe drives with a ton of write capability (Samsung pro perhaps).

"Lifespan - As we all know, when SSD writes data, the master controller will erase the old data and then write new data. This process is called P/E cycle (program/erase). When the P/E cycle runs out, the SSD is likely to fail."

[Sbrem]

So, after a ton of screwing around trying to get this damn computer working correctly, and still having issues, I said the hell with it and bought a nice shiny new iMac with more power and double the SSD capacity and will transfer everything overnight, as that takes 4 hours plus as a rule. Thanks for the help and info everyone.

Steve