deleted photos/external hard drive

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Level 1

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deleted photos/external hard drive

hi,last night i installed an external hard drive. i dragged and dropped iphoto to the hard drive, then began to delete photos from the original iphoto on the mac hard drive.

when i turned on the mac today the photos have been deleted from both copies of iphoto. I've emptied the trash.
is there anyway to get them back? How can i fix it so only the mac photos get deleted not those on the external hard drive? How can I upload to the external hard drive? Theres no space to upload onto the mac, hence the external drive.

Thanks Kara

imac, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Oct 26, 2007 5:43 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,320 points

Oct 26, 2007 5:56 AM in response to kara_p_uk

Kara

What version of iPhoto are you using? (iPhoto Menu -> About iPhoto)

It sounds like what you did was make an alias of the library on the HD, rather than copy it. As to recovering the pics: stop using the Mac. The more you save on the machine the greater the likelihood that you will overwrite the files. Download File Salvage and use it to recover the pics.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

kara_p_uk Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 26, 2007 12:00 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hi thanks for replying. i've copied and pasted iPHoto onto the external hard drive but the same thing is happenning. If I move a photo on mac library it moves it on ehd copy.

I've looked at Iphoto location under get info and one says mac and other ehd. Is there a way to remove it from the mac but leave it on the ehd?

Its version 2 2

Thanks
Kara

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Answer 3

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Oct 26, 2007 4:49 PM in response to kara_p_uk

What you're describing is not the normal Mac behavior -- simply dragging a file or folder does not create an alias. Dragging a file to a new location on the same drive will move the file; dragging a file to another disk volume will create a duplicate copy in the new location, leaving the original untouched (and unmoved).

When you select the external drive's icon and pick "Get Info..." from the File menu, what "Format:" is reported for that drive?

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Answer 4

kara_p_uk Author

Level 1

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Oct 27, 2007 2:05 AM in response to Brie Fly

HI,
It says its Mac OS Extended.
Thanks
Kara

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Answer 5

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Oct 27, 2007 9:06 AM in response to kara_p_uk

I just reread your original post and noticed that your discription omits one thing that I had assumed you had taken care of.

After copying your iPhoto Library folder to the external drive, did you follow the procedure outlined in the iPhoto Help topic, "Switching between photo libraries"?

If you did not, then it explains the problem you are describing -- iPhoto is unaware of the library you intend to use, and is simply opening the original library in your Pictures folders because it is still the "current" library (although the database is now corrupted by the manual file deletions).

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