Where to best install Photoshop CC.

[MustacheBerry]

Hi guys, I have just build a new rig and I am wondering where to put my Photoshop CC for the best performance/workflow. My work for now is pretty much focused on ditgital art and some design with canveses ussually around 3000x2000, and top 6000x6000.

I have one 256GB SSD that is my system drive with Windows 7 on it and it will probably serve as the scratch disk as well, one 1TB HDD that I plan to split into two 500GB partitions, one for my PSD's, final images and all the other work related stuff and the second one for instaling other programs, games, etc. I also have a 500GB Samsung Evo 840 its pretty much unused, but after numerous reports of its short lifespan and rapid loss of speed I'm not sure what could it be used for, I don't really need its space and I don't wan't to randomly lose all of its data after a year or so.

My initial idea was to put Photoshop along with all the files it will use on the first partition of an HDD, as having the PS on an SSD alone won't make that much on a difference and I don't feel like constantly juggling files between the drives.

 

[Tom Mann]

I'm not sure this is THE best way, but what I do on my big Win 10 box is:

1) OS + all programs on my first SSD - As well as for speed in opening apps, having all this stuff in one place allows me to quickly take periodic images of that drive and just blow the whole thing (including all settings, registry, etc.) back in should there ever be a major problem. Problems of this magnitude don't happen often, but when they do I find it very reassuring to be able to just mindlessly blow in my last good OS+Apps backup rather than trying to muck around with the registry, delete and reinstall programs, etc.

2) My 2nd SSD is for swap files, LR catalog, catalogs of my other DAM programs, caches for various programs like Bridge, and things that get accessed a lot, but could easily be regenerated if the need arises. I also use it for my daily work (so opening and saving huge PSB files doesn't take forever). At the end of a day, I use http://www.tgrmn.com/web/download.htm to effortlessly duplicate this directory over to one of my large internal, fast spinners. When I'm done a project, I do one last duplication and then delete the copy on the SSD.

3) I put my data files on a variety of fast internal and USB3 external drives, rotating the external ones to various locations as part of my backup / archival plan.

YMMV,

Tom M

 

[MrToM]

How much RAM you have and your processor speed will define the performance more than where software is located.

PS doesn't handle RAM very well anyway, if at all, so the more the better BUT only because you wont start using the scratch disc as quickly.

The fact that PS 'needs' a scratch disc is proof it doesn't handle memory very well.....I've never used, seen or heard of any other software that 'needs' a separate 'scratch' disc....hmmmm.

If you have a spare disc though then make it the scratch disc...hopefully you have enough RAM not to use it.

Adobe have confusingly changed their minds several times on which disc should be used as the scratch disc....originally they suggested NOT to use the same disc as the Main Program location, then they suggested it SHOULD be the same disc....now I don't think it matters....who knows?

Anyway....with PS on your main drive, files on another and if you have it the 'scratch' disc on a third then you should be good......depending on RAM and CPU speed.

At least with PS on an SSD it'll restart quicker when it crashes.

One trick I use to keep things running sweet is to regularly save and close PS....this clears it from hogging unused RAM, (Adobe finally, after 10+ years, admitted PS had memory 'issues'...and suggested an impossible, (for PC), workaround too...thanks for nothing Adobe!)

If the main program is on an SSD this takes no longer than sneezing....twice.

Other programs running in the background will of course also have an effect on performance.

One other thing too....if you want to keep file naming consistant but have your files on another drive then look into setting up symlinks or junctions (PC)....especially with a small capacity SSD 'C' drive.

You'll find better info on the net about them than I could explain here.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[MustacheBerry]

Thank you, I have 32GB 3000Mhz Corsair RAM (tho I still have to spin it up as its running on 2111Mhz by default) and an i7 6700K,I think this should be sufficient for my kind of work, tho having some scratch space, just in case would be nice since I've allready expirienced PS's ram handling skills (mentioned restarting was the only way to stay sane working on my old pc x)).

I don't really use other programs much I was taught to work using the simplest way possible, so I don't even know the majority of PS's options. Most of the other things I'll have will probably be some games and utility programs like MS Office, and I don't really care if they load a few seconds faster and even should the disc fail most of the save files are cloud based so that's not a problem either. What I care for the most are the files I work on.

I'll probably end up using the Samsung as a backup location and a scratch disk, hopefully it will last long enough. Another reason I'm not sure about putting PS on my system SSD is because of some horrible expieriences with Creative Cloud, if that thing will swarm me with viruses and malware like the last time I'd rather it not be on the OS drive, also because of my rather sizeble RAM Windows took up about 84GB so I just want to leave it enough room for the future(i'm not sure how big PS is now).

And thank you, I'll definitely look into the symlinks and junctions I was allready getting quite confused when looking trough my older works so its time to figure out some organized way of naming them.

 

[Tom Mann]

That's an interesting comment you made about your viruses and malware experience. FWIW, I've been using PS since the mid-1990s and never once in all those years have I ever had the slightest hint of a problem with viruses/malware coming in when installing PS, either from disks or with the new CC method of delivery. However, I certainly have heard of this happening with pirated copies of PS.

Since we occasionally get questions about this, if you have a moment, could you give some details about the bad malware experience you had with the CC? Also, did you ask Adobe for help? What did they say? etc.

Cheers,

Tom M

PS - FWIW, I'm running 64 Gig of RAM, and also an overclocked i7.

 

[MustacheBerry]

It wasn't Photoshop, I got interested in After Effects during my animation classes so I decided to download a trial version from the official Adobe site to play around with it(risk of viruses and other such problems was the reason I didn't want to pirate it or try some other unchecked sites).

At the time I had about 65Mbs internet conection but the download speed was around 140Kbs, so getting in done took about 2 hours. Throughout the whole process my antivirus warning massage was constantly up blocking hundreds of attemped attacks. Not only that but during the instalation the downloader tried to sneak in a ton of other programs(including the game World of Tanks...), after the tidious download I spend another 2 hours cleaning my internet browser from a ton of weird toolbars, search tools and other crap. Also the CC itself was running like a wreck the whole time I had it and often it wouldn't want turn off no matter what I did, only turning off the whole pc would put it down.

Luckly the AE worked fine, at least when it finally got up. Long storry short I was really happy when I deleted the whole thing from my pc and honestly if I had the money right now I would definitelly buy a CS5 or 6 over getting into CC again, but I hope they have cleaned the mess up by now(all of this happend about 1-2 years ago).

 

[MrToM]

...I'll definitely look into the symlinks and junctions I was allready getting quite confused when looking trough my older works so its time to figure out some organized way of naming them...

Ah...maybe I mislead you there a bit, sorry, symlinks are not really for re-naming per-se but for saving to a different drive than the save 'path' you select.

For example, you set up a 'Project' folder on your 'C' drive, same on say your 'D' drive....and you symlink them together.

When saving from PS you use the 'C:\Project Folder' path as normal....but, in reality the file is saved in the 'D:\Project Folder' folder on the 'D' drive.

As far as your PC is concerned it thinks the file is on the 'C' drive.....but it isn't.

This enables you to use your normal 'C' drive naming convention but have the files saved onto a different drive.....any folders or files you create will be in both locations but only those on the 'D' drive will actually use any drive space.

Symlinks are how Microsoft changed the folder structure from XP to Win7.....the 'old' folders are still there and still used but are 'Symlinked' to the new names...remember in XP you had a 'Documents and Settings' folder?...you still do in Win7 but its now called 'Users'....and points back to the old folder by way of being 'Symlinked'.(The old folder is then made a 'hidden' folder.)

Check out the massive suite of NIRSOFT tools for NTFSLinksView ....it'll show you all the symlinked folders on your PC that Microsoft have created for Win7....and any you create too.

Link to NIRSOFT NTFSLinksView:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/ntfs_links_view.html

Sorry if this is not what you thought I was to referring to, but its a great way to store your files on a completely different drive, (So in a sense its a way of protecting files from a 'C' drive failure), but still lets you use the more conventional 'C' drive as the path for opening, saving, or whatever and it uses no, or very little, space on your main 'C' drive.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[MustacheBerry]

Yes I've read a little about it and I don't really have trouble with that, I always save my stuff in my own folders its just that the naming gets a bit confusing without and set up patern, but thanks anyway.^^