Does Time Machine fully backup iPhoto 09 photos, events, faces, etc.? Mtn Lion

I'm going to the Apple store this afternoon. I believe I'll end up reinstalling the system and need to be sure everything is backed up.

Problem is iPhoto 09 (yep, I have an OLD version). It's going nuts - making sounds like a fast, loud, constant drumbeat, flashing, won't let me do anything except force quit.

I backup to Time Machine /external drive automatically and it seems to be backing up iPhoto. I don't want to open the iPhoto program from Time Machine to check since I'm afraid it might be something in the computer that could screw it up. I have thousands of phtoos in iPhoto and don't want to lose them.

Since the external drive I'm using wth Time Machine shows a backup today including iPhoto, should I feel comfortable that iPhoto is backed up appropriately, or do I need to back it up in some other way?