Saving Photos on LaCie

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Level 1

4 points

Saving Photos on LaCie

I have successfully backed up my entire iPhoto 11 (OS 10.7.5) library to my LaCie Porsche. I would like to be able to delete the earliest events from my Macbook but I am concerned that successive backups of the library (that no longer contained events from earler years) would overwrite the first and the events would be gone. Do successive exports of the entire library overwrite earlier versions? While I don't care about the events as events, I do want them for support for albums. Or do the albums stand alone on the LaCie if they are exported separately? And, one more thing-how does one move photos no longer on the compiuter from a LaCie back to the Macbook or to an iPad or iPhone? Any thoughts, answers or suggestions would be most welcome. Thank you.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Nov 7, 2013 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

Nov 7, 2013 3:37 PM in response to Shackleton#1

The key question is "how did you make the back up?"

If you want to have a full library on an external and a smaller subset on an internal:

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

1. Quit iPhoto

2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.

Now you have two full versions of the Library.

3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there

Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal

Some Notes:

As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.

You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'

You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

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Answer 2

Shackleton#1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 7, 2013 6:53 PM in response to Yer_Man

Hi Terence

Thanks for your reply. I am still confused. I have read the manual for the LaCie and I cannot tell whether or not my format is journaled. Nor do I know whether an existing iPhoto library import is overwritten by successive imports of the library. As I said in my email, my import to LaCie was successful, but I am reluctant to delete anything until I am sure that the back up is safe in LaCie? Can you elucidate? I do not have iPhoto Library Manager but I do have softwae called iPhoto to Disk.

Thanks, Rachel (aka Shackleton#1)

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

Nov 7, 2013 11:36 PM in response to Shackleton#1

If you copy something to a location and then afterwards copy someting else with the same name to that locaion you will be warned that the new item will over write the existing one.

I still haven't a clue what you've copied where and how, so other than that I can't advise you. The key question is "how did you make the back up?"

I do not have iPhoto Library Manager but I do have softwae called iPhoto to Disk.

I am not sure what the relevance of this is.

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Answer 4

Shackleton#1 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 8, 2013 6:48 AM in response to Yer_Man

Hi Terence

I made the backup by dragging the entire iPhoto library (from the Pictures folder) to the LaCie icon in Finder. The entire library is now on the LaCie. I am aware of the overwriting issue and that is why I asked the specific question. iPhoto to Disk is software similar to iPhoto Library Manager Perhps I am better off deleting what is now on the dik and starting over with the software. ait is however much easier to drag the icon. (BTW Apple tech support whom I called as a last ditch effort said that what was already on the LaCie would not be destroyed by a second import of the Library. I am wary and am going to test it.

Thanks, Rachel

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Answer 5

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

Nov 8, 2013 7:05 AM in response to Shackleton#1

I made the backup by dragging the entire iPhoto library (from the Pictures folder) to the LaCie icon in Finder.

Then subsequent dragging over of an iPhoto library will overwrite that one.

It sounds like you want to make incremental back ups to me. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically.

Example of such apps: Chronosync- but there are many others. Search on MacUpdateor the App Store

Photo To Disk is really nothing like iPhoto Library Manager at all, either in intention or capability.

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