iPhoto Quick Question

I got a new external HD for Christmas and wanted to back up my music and pictures, etc. Anyways I go into my Home folder > Pictures > iPhoto Library and copy that whole folder onto the HD.

I opened iPhoto and none of my pictures were there and when I went to the external HD it has what looks like the iPhoto when you first get it where it only has folders for four years with nothing in them. Whats weird is that as I searched through the iPhoto folder on my computer and found two or three of my pictures but no where near the 2000+ pictures that I had. I was just wondering if anyone had suggestions as where to look or what to do.

Nevermind... I lost everything

Lost photos in iPhoto

This happened to me last year. But with no explanation - I hadn't moved or transferred any photos, they just plain vanished from the iphotolibrary. I cried. There were years of photos organised by event in there. And now nothing. I heaved a sigh and started over, accepting those photos were gone and not backed up and it was my own stupid fault somehow. All I could imagine was that they had been erased during an automatic application update. Or that it had something to do with new memory cards being opened by my daughter using her userID or something.

One thing - this is probably bad practice but I am administrator for our family machine which has a separate user account for each family member (5 of us) and use my account for my apps and photos and itunes and everything. I should maybe create a new user account for myself which is NOT the admin account? Thoughts? Could this have been of relevance?

Since that original first loss of photos, my iphoto library has 'cleared' itself twice more and I can never see the relevance or why that might have happened. This time I ensure my photos are stored in separate folders in 'Pictures' so I at least have a copy of them somewhere other than the iphoto library. However now I cannot see how to view them all in iphoto without re-importing them. This really is a HUGE P.I.T.A.

I have seen other topics posted in this forum regarding 'iPhoto suddenly being empty' but no-one has ever given a satisfactory explanation. Maybe I need to book time with the Apple tech people to try and understand this? Anyone here ever manage to get a satisfactory explanation/resolution for this phenomenon?

Kathy