Saving photo from folders to CDRW, how to?

I want to back up my iphoto library on CDRW.

Each CDRW hold aproximately 700 mb of data but my yearly photo library is bigger than that so the CDRW just rejects the data

Within iPhoto, I have tried to choose differents albums to add to a CDRW but the disk would only accept one album at a time.

I found also found out that disk save within iPhoto cannot be shared with PC's or commercial machines.

It is essential for me to be able to make both iPhoto (mac backup) and PC/commercial photo reproduction backup.

I tried to zip(compress) the iPhoto library but it didn't copy unto the CDRW, probably still too big.

I went to the finder and worked within it to copy the first six month of my yearly photo library but the monthly folders were empty.

I have read and reread the instructions but they are not intuitive.

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Answer 7

Oct 30, 2006 12:12 PM in response to ibookfan

From your post, I am assuming you only have a combo drive and not a superdrive. that's too bad because it would help greatly if you could burn DVDs.
Is there any way you can copy/transfer the iPhoto Library folder to a computer that has a superdrive and can burn DVDs?
I would like to suggest, up front, for you to purchase an external drive to backup your iPhoto Library folder, itunes folder or any other folders/documents to. I backup my entire user folder to an external drive.
The link I posted above is the way to burn photos for windows users and photo processing companies.

For your own use with iPhoto, here is all the info I have for backing up.

Backing up your iPhoto Library
1. Burn the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder to a CD or DVD
This method will give you a burned iPhoto Library folder that can be copied back to your computer to replace a damaged library. You can also use this method to backup an old library when you want to create a new Library to use as your current library.
insert a blank CD into your internal or external CD-RW drive and copy the iPhoto library to the CD icon on your desktop. When you drag the CD icon to the Trash/Eject button in the Dock, you are given the option to burn the CD. Click Burn and the CD is created. To burn a DVD backup of your digital images, use a DVD and a SuperDrive-equipped Mac

The easiest way to burn an iPhoto Library folder in the Finder that is larger than 4.7 gig to fit on one DVD is to burn sections of the folder.

Drag the iPhoto Library folder to the desktop
Double click the folder to open it.
Drag each Year folder to the desktop.
You should be left with the iPhoto Library folder containing all the data files, and the Year folders.

Combine whatever year folders that amount closest to a DVD burn size on one DVD. Make sure that you have burned all the Year folders, then the iPhoto Library folder with all the data files.
If you ever need to use this backup, insert the DVDs into your computer and copy the folders to the desktop. Put all the Year folders back into the iPhoto Library folder. Then put the iPhoto Library folder back into the Pictures folder.
You can also check out applications for disc spanning:

Disc-spanning software
DropDMG
Toast
Dragon Burn 4
BackityMac
Retrospect Express-comes with some external drives
Retrospect for Macintosh Desktop Edition

2. Copy the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to an external drive formated for a Mac. Do not use this as your only back up as the external can also go bad.
3. Copy the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to your iPod in disk mode
4.Creating your own CDs and DVDs for viewing in iPhoto
This method is a great way to back up Albums of older photos or even your entire library if it is small enough to fit on a DVD. This method will give you a library that will mount within iPhoto in the source column to be viewed. To import any images from this library they need to be dragged into your library in the source column.

If you just want to backup the images in your library:
1) Within iPhoto select the images, albums or rolls you want to backup. Go to Share>Export and export them to a newly created folder on the desktop. Follow the directions in the next link.

Creating a CD or DVD to be viewed in Windows or by a photo processing company

1.. If you backed up the entire iPhoto Library by burning within iPhoto or burning the folder in the Finder, make sure the burned copy is a good working copy before you delete the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder. You delete the iPhoto Library in the finder by dragging it to the trash when iPhoto is closed. When you next launch iPhoto it will create a new empty library for you to start anew.
2. If you burned just the images, be aware that that is all you are archiving. No metadata will travel with the images such as comments, keywords, etc.
You can then delete those images within iPhoto by highlighting them and hitting the delete key, then empty iPhoto's trash. Do this often and in groups so iPhoto will not choke on too many images.

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Answer 8

ibookfan Author

Level 1

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Nov 7, 2006 9:48 AM in response to lori_diloreto

I have a superdrive but I don't want to use a DVD, I want to use a CDRW.

I also do not want to risk losing the data in iPhoto.

"The easiest way to burn an iPhoto Library folder in the Finder that is larger than 4.7 gig to fit on one DVD is to burn sections of the folder.

Drag the iPhoto Library folder to the desktop
Double click the folder to open it.
Drag each Year folder to the desktop.
You should be left with the iPhoto Library folder containing all the data files, and the Year folders.

Combine whatever year folders that amount closest to a DVD burn size on one DVD. Make sure that you have burned all the Year folders, then the iPhoto Library folder with all the data files."

This is almost exactly what I want to do exept I want to use a CDRW and I want to be able to save Month folders due to the small size of the CDRW.

When saving onto a CDRW to use with Windows, you talk about an album, I did create albums but I find it much easier to deal with folders especially Month folders and rolls.

Is there a way to save month folders or rolls the way I would save albums without loosing the data?

Is there anyway to increase the size of iPhoto without upgrading the entire OS?

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Answer 9

Nov 7, 2006 10:52 AM in response to ibookfan

The easiest way I think to do this is to open the folder and right click the folder you will see a link for create burn folder. Move all your photos to the burn folder then right click the burn folder then you will see an option "burn to disk"

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Answer 10

Nov 7, 2006 5:15 PM in response to ibookfan

Why don't you want to use DVDs?
You can select a number of rolls within iPhoto and go to burn them the way that is described in the link I provided. You command click each roll/album to select the ones you want to export and burn.
What do you mean by "Is there a way to save month folders or rolls the way I would save albums without loosing the data?"?
also, what do you mean by "Is there anyway to increase the size of iPhoto without upgrading the entire OS? "?

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Answer 11

ibookfan Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2006 8:00 PM in response to lori_diloreto

What do you mean by "Is there a way to save month folders or rolls the way I would save albums without loosing the data?"?

When I realized that a year folder would not fit into a CDRW, I put month folders inside the burn folders but when I opened the burn folder, just before burning the CDRW, I saw that the month folders had no data in them.

also, what do you mean by "Is there anyway to increase the size of iPhoto without upgrading the entire OS? "?

I want to increase the size of iPhoto library.

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Answer 12

ibookfan Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 25, 2006 3:33 PM in response to ibookfan

I bought DVD's so now what am I supposed to do?

Give me 1, 2 or 3 easy steps to save my iphoto library to DVD.

I know nothing about third party softwares and I do not enjoy complicated steps to get things done.

That's why I bought an Apple.

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