SD card instead of HDD

[OrpenM]

I have a small laptop (Lenova ideapad 110S) with 2GB RAM  and only 40GB HDD, just enough to run PS CC when away from my 'big' PC , e.g. on courses or siminars. But the HDD is 90% full , which presumably means PS has little available for its behind the scenes processing.  I have a mini SD card semi permanently in place, e.g. for storing a few picture files etc I might use away from base. Is there a way of getting PS to take advantage of spare SD space for its processing. ?

[D Fosse]

Photoshop can't use an SD card, it can usually not even use external drives (except storage of course).

Most of those 90% are probably under your user account, as caches and previews and orphaned temp files. In short, waste, get rid of it. I recently cleaned out over 100GB of this stuff from my C drive.

As an example, 20GB of it were Bridge caches for versions no longer installed. Why this stuff isn't automatically swept out with the uninstall is a good question.

These files are normally hidden, and even so the folders can be well tucked away. You need to look for them. First, run Windows Disk Cleanup. That's an excellent tool, but the default settings aren't very aggressive. Run it a couple of times, increasing the settings as you go.

There is also a utility called WinDirStat (google it), which will show you your whole file structure. I find it a great help. You'll see exactly what's taking up space, broken down to folders, file types and extensions.

[OrpenM]

Thanks for that;  a thorough and helpful  answer, even if it's not the one I would have liked!.

How much scope I have to clean out some of the 90% on the 34MB drive (I got it wrong when I said 40) I'm not sure, as all I have loaded is W10, firefox, which I prefer to Edge, and  PS & a plug in (not even Office, or email clients which I suspect would blow it!) .

Having said that I can open a pic, duplicate it, fettle it in CR, open in PS, do duplicate layers, select and mask, B&W conversions, save-as PSD etc at a reasonable pace, so as an ad hoc tool I think I might get away with it.

(What has really struct me is how unsatisfactory is a screen showing just 70% of sRGB  compared with my EIZO's 99% of AdobeRGB, Are laptops generally this bad?)

But I'll keep an eye on unwanted  files building up. And arguably if I am using it just for PS in workshops I don't need the extra browser and loads of other stuff bundled with W10 - how much space does stuff like  MSN take I wonder (I'd rather read a cereal packet!).

Anyway, thanks again. John

[D Fosse]

The thing is, all this junk isn't in the program folders where most people would start looking. It's under Users > Your Name > AppData, places that are normally hidden unless you "show hidden files" in Folder Options. Try WinDirStat.

And yes, laptop screens aren't bad, they're often bordering on horrible. That's the price you pay for portability.