I just got a 2TB Samsung T7 SSD for my work, mainly to deal with the annoying 'Scratch Disk Full' error that keeps popping up on my MacBook Air. I do a lot of work on Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, and I was hoping to use this drive as extra storage and a scratch disk. The only issue is I want it to be compatible with both Mac and Windows. I'm thinking of formatting it as ExFAT for storage, but will that work for scratch disk purposes in Photoshop? I'm a bit unsure since I've only got a 256GB internal hard drive that's nearly full, and I plan on moving some files to OneDrive soon. What's the best way to format this drive to avoid the scratch disk issue in the future?
2 Answers
If you need the drive to work on both Windows and Mac, ExFAT is the way to go. However, if you're looking to use it specifically as a scratch disk for Photoshop, you might want to stick with APFS, which is Mac's native format. Just keep in mind you won't be able to access an APFS drive from Windows unless you use extra software. You could always use OneDrive for files you need on both systems instead!
For cross-compatibility, NTFS is indeed a great option, but it’s typically more Windows-centric. If you want your external drive recognized by both systems, you should focus on ExFAT for storage. Just a heads up, ExFAT isn’t usually recognized as a scratch disk by Photoshop, so you might still run into issues there.
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