Can't drag from iphoto to HDD

Hi there!

I've got approx 5,000 photos in my library that I want to back up.

I've tried burning in iphoto - won't work.
I've tried burning directly in toast - won't work.
Also tried dragging them to a file in finder - it won't do it.

So, I decided to drag them to the external drive (exporting doesn't work because it says disc is too full). After ages and ages, it's still copying over and then I get a message saying that it can't do it because a certain image (gives a number) or more is busy. When I press ok, all the files that it had filled the folder up with disappear, until nothing is left.

What's going wrong?! Please help!
GG

Here you go:

iPhoto To Disk

Alternatively, you can use Time Machine or one of the clone programs to back up the whole iPhoto Library package, which you should be doing as part of your normal backup strategy.

It does sound however like you've got a very full disk somewhere (and perhaps permissions problems as well) and that is going to give you a lot of other problems so I'd take care of that straightaway. Anything less than 10GB of free space on a Mac these days is asking for trouble.

Thanks for that, Chas! However, I've not got the internet at the moment to download that - I've just moved house. I was hoping to use what I had.

Also, I read somewhere that possibly, the reason it said that a certain file name was busy was because certain file numbers were being repeated - possibly because of the camera. I have 25gb left on my hard disc so I don't think that is too low for this job, do you?

Would exporting them and renaming the files solve my problem with regards to the numbers being repeated, without affecting the pictures already in my iphoto library? I don't want them messed up!

Cheers,
GG

Your best and safest bet is to copy the entire iPhoto Library package to the external. That will work, there won't be any name conflicts, and the problem will be resolved and the photos backed up.

But yes, the reason you're running into this problem when you try to copy manually is that you're trying to copy multiple files with the same name to the same place.

Renaming 5,000 pictures to try and avoid duplications of filenames sounds like an tedious job to me. I really do think your best option is to simply drag the package called "iPhoto Library" to the external drive, thus copying it.

Thanks!

But can you elaborate a bit on that, please? What exactly do you mean by the iphoto package and where do I drag that from?

And also, I've just thought of something - would making a duplicate of a photo give me the same file number, thus causing this problem. There are a couple in there, I'm sure.

Please forgive my lack of mac knowledge!

Cheers,
GG