I have a LaCie external hard disk. I do not know how to retrieve photos from iphoto that have disappeared. I do not know how to use Time Machine

Question

I have a LaCie external hard disk. I do not know how to retrieve photos from iphoto that have disappeared. I do not know how to use Time Machine

I have a LaCie external hard drive. I also have Time Machine. I somehow have "lost" almost all my 5,000+ photos from iPhoto 8.1.2. I would appreciate someone giving me directions on how to retrieve the photos from the external hard drive or Time Machine.

The last thing that I did that is different from my normal routine was to trash duplicate music tunes from iTunes. I cannot figure out how that would have caused my photos to disappear.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Marilyn

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 30, 2011 5:12 PM

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Answer 1

May 31, 2011 7:28 AM in response to LarryHN

I remember being cautioned to never do anything with the iPhoto Library. Should I have clicked on the iPhoto Library and then Restore?

I do not know "how" items are being placed in the LaCie external drive, just that it shows a backup running about every hour. I have taken a snapshot of the Time Machine Preferences I would you to see. Maybe that would answer this question.

In March 2011 I had to have hard drive on my iMac replaced. I had been using a Seagate external drive for backups. However I was not using Time Machine. When the Apple guru was helping me restore all my files etc on the new hard drive he was not familiar with Seagate and recommended I purchase this LaCie and use Time Machine. I never had any problem retrieving items from the Seagate backup. It was very straightforward. As I mentioned previously, I just don't have a clue with the LaCie and Time Machine.

I hope this is not TMI.

Marilyn

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,706 points

May 31, 2011 11:49 AM in response to marilynfromsunnyvale

To use Time Machine to restore a library go to your Pictures folder and enter Time Machine. There should be a small TM icon in next to the Spotlight magnifying glass in the menu bar.

Then go back in time to a date just before you lost your photos. Select the iPhoto Library and click on the Restore button.

Click to view full size

You would do the same for any file. Select it first on your hard drive and then enter TM, go to the necessary date, select it again and use the Restore button.

OT

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Answer 3

May 30, 2011 8:47 PM in response to LarryHN

I selected the duplicate tunes and went to Edit and selected Delete and Move To Trash and emptied the trash.

That was last evening.

Today I clicked on iPhoto in the Dock and all my albums were gone and instead of 5,000+ photos there were 83.

My iPhoto library resides in the Home folder.

I am now very embarrassed as just before checking this forum, I opened the iPhoto Application and all 5,871 photos are there as well as all the albums.

I have no idea what was taking place, but everything seems to be back in place.

Thank you for your time.

I still do not know how to retrieve items from Time Machine or my LaCie external hard drive. Maybe that should go under a different subject heading.

Marilyn

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

May 30, 2011 10:00 PM in response to marilynfromsunnyvale

Is Time Machine running? If so to retrieve items from TM launch TM and go back in time until you find the item you want - select it and click restore.

As to the LaCie external drive - how are items being placed there?

LN

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Answer 5

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

May 31, 2011 10:42 AM in response to marilynfromsunnyvale

the LaCie is your TM backup - you access it using Time Machine for file recovery - simply launch TM and in the TM interface go to the time you want to restore from and select the file(s) you want to restore and click restore

to recover just a few photos you can launch iPhoto and use the browse backup under the file menu -

It probably makes sense to take the TM tutorial

LN

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Answer 6

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

May 30, 2011 8:03 PM in response to marilynfromsunnyvale

We certainly need n=more information - exactly what did you do to delete duplicate music from iTunes?

What do you see in iPhoto?

Where is your iPhoto library normally kept?

LN

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Answer 7

May 31, 2011 12:11 PM in response to LarryHN

Thank you for being so diplomatic. I think I understand TM better now. I will keep your response handy. Hopefully there will not be a next time.

Thank you again.

Marilyn

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Answer 8

May 31, 2011 12:12 PM in response to Old Toad

Thank you for your help. It is really appreciated.

Marilyn

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