iPhoto and external drive

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Level 1

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iPhoto and external drive

Hi

I have a 1Tb external hdd connected to my Mac. I have a iPhoto library on my external hdd which I can access using the Option key when booting into iPhoto. My question is, I would like to delete some iPhoto folders on my Mac to free up some space. If I then export the library over to the external drive, will this new library then overwrite the existing library on the external drive and therefore I lose those same folders/photos also? I would like to keep these less accessed photos on the external drive, but dont want them overwritten with a new library. Also, Is there a way of backing up new photos to the external drive without always moving the whole library?

Thanks for your advice.

MacBook

Posted on Apr 7, 2011 1:25 AM

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Answer 1

LarryHN

Level 10

106,110 points

Apr 7, 2011 9:04 AM in response to Mat2912

I have a 1Tb external hdd connected to my Mac. I have a iPhoto library on my external hdd which I can access using the Option key when booting into iPhoto. My question is, I would like to delete some iPhoto folders on my Mac to free up some space. If I then export the library over to the external drive, will this new library then overwrite the existing library on the external drive and therefore I lose those same folders/photos also?

There is no exporting involved - the iPhoto library is a database and you simply copy it to the external drive as a single entity - this. of course, will replace any existing file/folder/package with the same name so you would rename the existing iPhoto library on the external drive prior to copying the new one

I would like to keep these less accessed photos on the external drive, but dont want them overwritten with a new library. Also, Is there a way of backing up new photos to the external drive without always moving the whole library?

Using an incremental backup program - I clone my entire system using Carbon Copy Cloner (SuperDuper is a good choice) - there are also incremental backup programs that others use

LN

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Answer 2

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Apr 9, 2011 9:52 AM in response to Mat2912

Just a footnote to Larry's excellent advice:

I use an app called SyncTwoFolders for that exact purpose:

http://synctwofolders.en.softonic.com/mac

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