02-11-2010, 12:06 PM

Hi

apologies for the very basic level of this post - virgin iMac user alert!

Along with my new 27" iMac, I've bought a backup tool and am backing up a number of files/folders, one of them being my iPhoto file. My only concern is that the file is huge and it's only a single file whereas it contains 1,000's of photos. I read in MacWorld this month reference to an iPhoto user file and that got me worrying that if the worst was to happen would I be able to load the iPhoto file after I recover it from my external drive and see all of my photos - or do I need the user file as well?

Hopefully the question is clear?

02-11-2010, 02:56 PM

What backup program are you using? If you have a large enough external hard drive, you can use the built in Time Machine backup which will allow you to recover your iPhoto file and folders intact if you should ever need to do so.

You also should consider using a backup strategy that can clone your entire hard drive contents to an external drive and at the same time render the external drive bootable. Both "Carbon Copy Cloner" and "SuperDuper" will do just that.

Regards.

02-11-2010, 03:21 PM

Hi,

I'm using Intego Personal Backup X5 - seems to get good reviews and again probably my lack of knowledge but I started to use Time Machine and I couldn't see the individual files that had been backed up. This seemed important to me at the time so bought the commercial software

02-11-2010, 05:10 PM

The iPhoto Library is not one individual file. It's a "package" which is a fancy name for a unique looking folder. Ctrl-Click your iPhone Library and select 'Show Package Contents'. You'll then be able to see what's really in there.

DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES INSIDE THE PACKAGE. EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CHANGE COULD DESTROY THE LIBRARY. That's why the contents of the library are normally hidden. But feel free to look around in there at your own risk.

02-12-2010, 10:21 AM

Originally Posted by chscag

You also should consider using a backup strategy that can clone your entire hard drive contents to an external drive and at the same time render the external drive bootable. Both "Carbon Copy Cloner" and "SuperDuper" will do just that.

Regards.

I agree wholeheartedly with this! I have multiple external hard drive backups, at different locations to protect my photos!

Having said that, if all you want to do is to backup your photos, I'd simply copy the entire iPhoto library (with all the subfiles, etc.) (User>Pictures>iPhoto Library) to another media (DVD, external HD, etc.). That way, if you ever need to recover, you will have an intact library to simply copy back to your (new) drive.

And, I also second the advice to stay out of the iPhoto library in finder! You can REALLY mess up your iPhoto if you do anything in there!