HELP! Recovering iPhoto library from external drive with TimeMachine. iPhoto library is missing from external drive

I can't go into my MacBook in Time Machine because the iPhoto library is not in the Pictures folder in my User, because it was being stored on the "Storage" external drive.

Have you included the "Storage" drive in your Time Machine backup or not?

It appears the Partition is sitll there - albeit "unmounted" whatever this means?!

Unmounted means, that the file system on the external disk has not yet been made accessible. Try to mount the drive using disk utility. Select the partion, just like your screen shot is showing, and then try the icon with the two blue arrows in the toolbar to mount the drive.

Once the drive is mounted, check what is left of the data.

Your screenshot does not look good. The name of the partition - disk2s1 - implies the name of the EFI firmware partition, and the formatting is MS-DOS (FAT), totally unsuitable to hold an iPhoto Library. Has your relative reformatted the partition? Then the data will be lost.

If you manage to mount the drive, select it in the Finder and then dive into the TM time tunnel.

Why is MS-DOS (FAT) unsuitable? What should I be using instead?

The iPhoto library must be on a volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - it is is on a different format volume (like FAT) it will not work properly

LN

As Larry said - iPhoto will not work properly with the wrong formatting. You may get errors when copying the library to and from the drive, because the formats of the filenames are different. Long filenames will be problematic, also filenames with special characters.

You can reformat and rename the partition using Disk Utility's "Erase" tab.

Okay so I have restored the back up iPhoto library, and want to now get this back on my external drive as it is too big for my MacBook built in hard drive.

After you formatted the partition correctly, you can drag your recovered iPhoto library to the partition on the external drive using the Finder.

If you encounter copy errors - "some items could not be copied becasue you have no permission ..." then repair or rebuild your library before trying to copy. Also some filenames may need fixing, if the library has been on a partition wth the wrong format. Then post back.

Check your library carefully and back it up, before you delete it from your internal drive.

Léonie

Also you may need to check on the Time Machine forum concerning using the same drive for TM and storage - I am not sure that Time Machine can handle that - but it is a TM question - not an iPhoto one

LN

Will i need to put the library back onto my internal storage and reformat and transfer back?

Exactly.

MS-DOS (Fat) is incompatible with photo libraries. You are risking data loss - original photo files may be overwritten or references to original files may get lost.