Best way to free up hard drive space??

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Level 1

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Best way to free up hard drive space??

Brand new here-please take it easy on me!!
I backed up my hard drive to an external seagate freeagent pro (360GB??), but when I go to the seagate drive, I cannot view my photos that were backed up. How do I view them? I opened the seagate icon, clicked on applications folder, scrolled down to iphoto (which is under the installers tab-should it be under the installers tab or utilities tab??) open iphoto, but it shows no photos......?
I have over 10,000 photos that are VERY important to me, and would not like to lose them.
I read that it is okay to move the library to the trash to free up hard drive space?? Could someone direct me to a link to help me out? I have been searching for about 2 hours and haven't found my answer yet......I'm starting to get a little nervous.......

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1.67

Posted on Feb 27, 2008 1:23 PM

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Answer 1

arnie

Level 5

4,065 points

Feb 27, 2008 4:34 PM in response to jp6940

do not do anything with the Library folders, especially the Library in your user home folder - most of your music, photos etc are stored there by default.

in Mac OS X every user has an account and a home folder, contents of which are linked to the applications (iPhoto etc) for each different user; if you simply copy the files over to another drive, the links may not work.

if everything still works on the original drive, you may want to "clone" the drive to the external - it will make an exact copy of your drive.

to clone, boot from the installation DVD, go to the Disk Utility and use "Restore" option to clone the drive - be very careful about which drive is the source and which one is the destination, since the destination drive will be erased.

try at your own risk though.

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Answer 2

jp6940 Author

Level 1

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Feb 27, 2008 5:58 PM in response to arnie

Sorry, not the library folder I meant the originals folder....
I read that iphoto makes a copy from the originals folder. Am I correct in doing this?
Also, iphoto boots fine from the original drive, but my photos are gone.....
When I boot from the seagate, iphoto boots fine, but I have NO photos...??
However, when I go into the photos folder, all of my photos are there labeled by 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, etc.....
How will I be able to VIEW these from the seagate drive? Getting more nervous.....

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Answer 3

Feb 27, 2008 10:13 PM in response to jp6940

Grab the free app called "Disk Inventory X". It'll reveal the chunks of data that you an get rid of. I found a previous OS X system folder of 9GB once!

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Answer 4

arnie

Level 5

4,065 points

Feb 28, 2008 6:50 AM in response to jp6940

make sure you have actual picture files in your photos folder, maybe burn them to a CD or DVD first for another backup.

you can open iPhoto on either drive
click on "File" in menue bar on top
then "Import to Library", then select the folders with the photos
click blue "Import" button in the window, that will put the flders/pictures into proper location to be displayed in the iPhoto.

if all works, you can decide which files to remove to free up the drive space

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Answer 5

jp6940 Author

Level 1

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Mar 11, 2008 6:29 PM in response to jp6940

Okay. I click iphoto, opens up, no photos.....
Click library on left tab. Have these folders: early photos, 2005, 2006, 2007,2008, last roll, last 12 months, and trash. Each click reveals nothing.
Closed app, click on Apple HD, has apps, library, system, users. Also on left I have idisk, desktop, john (me), apps, docs, movies, music, pictures.
Can I just restore it to the way it was before I did all of this crap? If I "restore" it to a month ago, it will be fine.....Is this possible? How do I do it?
Basically, my photos are there under various places, and I need to put them back to where the hel_ they belong.......they are all mixed up. IS there a program that will do this, or can I restore it back a month or two....

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