Bringing pics from multiple sources into iPhoto '08 and then backing it up

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Bringing pics from multiple sources into iPhoto '08 and then backing it up

My photo file organization is a mess in that I've switched computers over the past few years so I have some photos on my PC, some on my macbook pro hard drive, and some in an external drive. I plan to put everything into one external drive and point iPhoto to that drive as the library. The library has already been created and I've started to sort those files on the drive now by events. I will very likely have a lot of duplicates when I move all of my picture files.

What process should I use to get all of my photos organized and deduped, and then how should I back it all up if I already have it all on an external drive? I probably have about 20,000 pictures in total. Can I put them on DVDs or should I look to buy another drive to back up my photos? Right now, I've designated a 750GB drive for videos and photos and a 500GB drive as my back up drive for my mac. The 500GB drive has been partitioned so 250GB is for back up of my mac using Super Duper (soon to move over to Time Machine once I figure out how to use it) and the other 250GB was where I put my videos and photos until I ran out of space (lots of space sucking videos).

I plan on getting Time Capsule as I need to upgrade my router and was thinking of using that to back up my husband's PC as well as additional back up for my mac.

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Karen

My current

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2), PC

Posted on Jul 19, 2008 11:20 PM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

207,361 points

Jul 20, 2008 10:28 AM in response to karentam6600000

Karen:

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. To cull out duplicate photos from your library use either Duplicate Annihilator or iPhoto Diet. Be sure to make a backup copy of the library before running either in case the results are not what you expected.

As far as organization that's a personal preference. iPhoto imports folders from the Finder intact as a single event if you have your iPhoto/Event preferences set like shown here. If you want to sort all of the photos chronologically you can create Smart Albums for each year and then take each smart album and create an event from the contents. Taking it a little further you can break that down by month the same way and have events by month. If some of the photos don't fall into the correct time frame you can change that with the Photos->Adjust Time and Date menu option.

Terence Devlin has a good backup procedure in backing up each years photos to DVD separately from external HDs and the link. You can do that from iPhoto using the Share->Burn menu option. This will create a DVD disk that when mounted on the desktop will be visible in iPhoto like this and the photos can be copied back into the library like this.

However, since there are lot of overhead included in the burn, don't go by the size reported in iPhoto at the bottom as the size of files to be burned. For a DVD I'd keep the reported size to 4 GB or a little less. If you have a lot of edited photos or portrait photos from a camera with the auto rotate feature the actual burned size will be a lot larger that what iPhoto reports. Then save those disk off site, like a safe deposit box. I burn each years photos to DVDs and distribute to my kids so I have 3 copies off site.

TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

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