Photoshop Swap File Size

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:33 pm

i'm in a bit of a trouble with photoshop.

i'm working on a project and at first it seemed ok but now the photoshop seems to crash almost everytime when i work on that project.

the thing is it's pretty big. the image is 5000*5000px with 300dpi 8bits and it has 800+Mb so far. usually when i work on my maps the swap file reaches max 3GB but for some reason this swap file reaches now almost 12GB. space is not an issue as i have another 30Gb free on that partition. memory also shouldn't be a problem as i have 2Gb.
and yet photoshop crashes regardless of what i do. even if i take a simple brush and draw a line.

what's the problem? am i doing something wrong? is it just a matter of hardware upgrade? if so then what hardware?

my pc has an amd athlon 64 3200+ 2gb ram 250mb hdd

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:53 pm

nobody knows?

please i need this sorted by new year

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:02 pm

i came up with another idea.

i started a new file and did some more work.
then i opened the old 800mb file and moved the layers from the new to the old.
now the file has 940Mb and the pc freezes then photoshop crashes like crazy.
and i only did the background for the image. i need this sorted. please.

is there a way to make the file smaller and still keep the layers? i don't want to flatten the image

by **gimil** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:06 pm

DiM wrote:i came up with another idea.

i started a new file and did some more work.
then i opened the old 800mb file and moved the layers from the new to the old.
now the file has 940Mb and the pc freezes then photoshop crashes like crazy.
and i only did the background for the image. i need this sorted. please.

is there a way to make the file smaller and still keep the layers? i don't want to flatten the image

i dont know how to fix your problem, but a way around it would be to do your project in bits. Finish a part, save the layered file as backup and flatten your image. do the next bit, save hte next step flatten continue. Need to change someing go back change it on hte backup flatten it and move it to the main file.

by **Telvannia** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:07 pm

make the image smaller than 5000 by 5000. For some reason that tends to help :lol:

by **gimil** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:08 pm

Telvannia wrote:make the image smaller than 5000 by 5000. For some reason that tends to help

this might work . . .

Because you on a shit hot version of photoshop you should have no problem scaling it back up.

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:29 pm

nope making it smaller than 5000px is no good cause i have to do some hand drawing and writing that won't scale the right way. i could keep those in a separate 5000*5000 file and work on a smaller res file but i need changing them as i advance with the image and scaling up and down takes forever.

and the flattening part is also out of the question. i never flatten layers because i always come up with an idea that needs some changing. it would be a total pain in the ass to flat them then search for the back-up modify, flatten it add it to the latest version see how it looks go back redo something minor flatten again load in latest version and so on.

and believe me i always find something insignificant to change.

by **WidowMakers** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:34 pm

gimil wrote:
DiM wrote:i came up with another idea.

i started a new file and did some more work.
then i opened the old 800mb file and moved the layers from the new to the old.
now the file has 940Mb and the pc freezes then photoshop crashes like crazy.
and i only did the background for the image. i need this sorted. please.

is there a way to make the file smaller and still keep the layers? i don't want to flatten the image

i dont know how to fix your problem, but a way around it would be to do your project in bits. Finish a part, save the layered file as backup and flatten your image. do the next bit, save hte next step flatten continue. Need to change someing go back change it on hte backup flatten it and move it to the main file.

This is what I would suggest too. Make each major sectio nin its own PSD file. The final file will be made up of flattened layers.

WM

by **CrabNebula** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:38 pm

I think it might be for lack of memory or maybe graphics card memory. When you are working on such a memory intensive work, even 2gb might not cut it. What graphics card do you have btw?

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:42 pm

WidowMakers wrote:
gimil wrote:
DiM wrote:i came up with another idea.

i started a new file and did some more work.
then i opened the old 800mb file and moved the layers from the new to the old.
now the file has 940Mb and the pc freezes then photoshop crashes like crazy.
and i only did the background for the image. i need this sorted. please.

is there a way to make the file smaller and still keep the layers? i don't want to flatten the image

i dont know how to fix your problem, but a way around it would be to do your project in bits. Finish a part, save the layered file as backup and flatten your image. do the next bit, save hte next step flatten continue. Need to change someing go back change it on hte backup flatten it and move it to the main file.
This is what I would suggest too. Make each major sectio nin its own PSD file. The final file will be made up of flattened layers.

WM

i said above i tried that. i made the background and it has 800MB then i added some artwork that has 140mb.
the problem is the background is a major section and at 800 mb it still crashes the pc. i don't know if i can break it in smaller sections

i mean i could go and make each layer of the background in it's own file then put them together and quickly try to flatten the whole background before the pc crashes. and this way i'll get the full background image in a small flat file. but the problem is that if i want to change something i'd have to go to one of the files that hold each layer that makes the background and make the change. then flatten each file that contains a layer for the background and put them in a single file to see how the change would look on the whole. it's really really complicated and to be honest id rather get some paint and canvas and do it by hand :lol:

would getting more ram help?

by **yeti_c** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:44 pm

Getting more RAM might help - alternatively - set the page file size in Windows to 20 gigs or something... that way Windows doesn't have to deal with making it bigger...

Also how does it crash? Does it just stop responding? Or does it crash and burn?

C.

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:45 pm

yeti_c wrote:Getting more RAM might help - alternatively - set the page file size in Windows to 20 gigs or something... that way Windows doesn't have to deal with making it bigger...

Also how does it crash? Does it just stop responding? Or does it crash and burn?

C.

it says ps cs3 encountered an error and needs to be closed and i get 2 buttons debug and close.

does the windows swap file has anything to do with the photoshop swap file? would increasing it help?

by **yeti_c** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:47 pm

DiM wrote:
yeti_c wrote:Getting more RAM might help - alternatively - set the page file size in Windows to 20 gigs or something... that way Windows doesn't have to deal with making it bigger...

Also how does it crash? Does it just stop responding? Or does it crash and burn?

C.

it says ps cs3 encountered an error and needs to be closed and i get 2 buttons debug and close.

Hmmm... then you're fooked!!

C.

by **gimil** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:51 pm

yeti_c wrote:
DiM wrote:
yeti_c wrote:Getting more RAM might help - alternatively - set the page file size in Windows to 20 gigs or something... that way Windows doesn't have to deal with making it bigger...

Also how does it crash? Does it just stop responding? Or does it crash and burn?

C.

it says ps cs3 encountered an error and needs to be closed and i get 2 buttons debug and close.

Hmmm... then you're fooked!!

C.

lot of help :wink:

hangover any better?

by **yeti_c** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:55 pm

Most definitely...

C.

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:08 pm

i can't put the swap file to be greater than 4096MB. this is what the system tells me when i try to put more.

i had it set to minimum 1.5GB max 3 GB. i've changed it to minimum 3000MB max 4000MB. still the same problem with the photoshop crash.

btw i have windows xp professional with service pack 2

by **gimil** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:21 pm

uninstall, reinstall?

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:25 pm

gimil wrote:uninstall, reinstall?

what? photoshop? :shock:

photoshop is fine. it works like a charm on any other image. it's the size that makes it crash. and so far the only solution is to make one separate file for each layer then flatten them all for the final image. that would actually work but it would slow me down so bad i would be better off abandoning the project. imagine having 100 files 1 for each layer. then another hundred for the flattened layers. then who knows how many more for the groups of layers. it would make organization and fast effective working impossible.

by **gimil** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:29 pm

"Managing the few is the same as managing the many, its just a matter or oganisation"

quoted from some famous general used in Rome: Total War :lol:

by **Coleman** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:31 pm

I think it is your hard drive file system. I'm betting you are FAT32 and not NTFS

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

You can reformat your hard drive to be NTFS but it isn't easy and may break some programs. (I'm not sure which, but I've heard of it happening, didn't break any of mine when I switched)

by **yeti_c** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:37 pm

You might have a point Coleman...

The max filesize is 4GB minus 2 Bytes for FAT32.

Alternatively - you might be able to partion off some free space and make that NTFS - which "might" stop you from having to format.

C.

by **DiM** on Fri Dec 21, 2007 2:43 pm

Coleman wrote:I think it is your hard drive file system. I'm betting you are FAT32 and not NTFS

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

You can reformat your hard drive to be NTFS but it isn't easy and may break some programs. (I'm not sure which, but I've heard of it happening, didn't break any of mine when I switched)

i'm fat 32 on drive C and ntfs on the other partitions.
i tried making the page file on drive E where i have the most space and it still won't let me make it more than 4GB.

btw i won't reformat C to ntfs because drive C has some bad files and i can't do it. tried it when i switched my other partitions and it didn't work. :lol: