05-05-2009, 05:30 AM

I was using spotlight to search for a pictures folder of mine. Its in iPhoto as well. Now when I saw the the folders in the list, there were 2 of them actually. One was named as data and the other one was named as original. Does this mean that the same folder is saved twice meaning if the folder is of 2 MB, it would be taking up a space of total 4 MB of my HDD?

I know this question might sound kinda stupid but since I am new to Mac and totally confused about this thats why I'd highly appreciate your help here. By the way, can anyone tell me any good tutorials for automator and iPhoto?

Thank you.

05-05-2009, 11:07 AM

The originals folder is just that -- the originals of your photos. iPhoto keeps them so that at any time, you can revert to the original and start any modifications over. There is also a "modified" folder that keeps those modifications. The date folder you saw is the thumbnails -- kept so that iPhoto loads quickly. All three folders are necessary. Yes, they do take up some extra room, but not really that much. Do not alter any of them in any way. In fact, stay out of the library in finder if you want to use iPhoto. Do anything to/with your photos from within the app itself.

Look here: Apple - Support - iPhoto for some good info and tutorials on iPhoto. You can also find tutorials on the Apple site for automator.

Good luck! And welcome to the wonderful world of macs!

05-05-2009, 02:50 PM

Thank you so much. That surely was very helpful and clarified a lot of confusion. That was really kind of you :-)