How do I retrieve 1 pic from ext HD without importing all?

The title says it all really, I recently backed up 12,000 pics onto an external terrabyte to free up much needed space in my MacBook Pro, I flagged about 500 'best ones' and kept those in iPhoto after re-installing it for god measure.

If I want to find a pic that is somewhere among the thousands now in the external HD, how do I retrieve it without importing all of them, is there a way I can just browse through them within the terrabyte?

Not really, no sadly, you have to be able to open them to see them. As far as I'm aware there is no way of looking at them (unless they are in iPhoto).
For future reference, why not store your iPhoto library on the external, that way they aren't cluttering your HD, but are still visible in iPhoto.

Alternatively, this set up would be a very useful addition (and very cool!):

http://poland.digitalslife.com/wd-p...emotely-view-images-stored-on-an-external-wd/

How to retrieve 1 pic from ext HD without importing all?

The title says it all really, I recently backed up 12,000 pics onto an external terrabyte to free up much needed space in my MacBook Pro, I flagged about 500 'best ones' and kept those in iPhoto after re-installing it for god measure.

If I want to find a pic that is somewhere among the thousands now in the external HD, how do I retrieve it without importing all of them, is there a way I can just browse through them within the terrabyte?

You asked this before, and I answered. Go to your original thread, and please don't duplicate questions. Thanks.

Note: Merged duplicate threads.

You can open Finder and browse through the folder on the external using Cover FLow.

To import the single picture, you simply drag and drop the individual file onto the iPhoto icon.

A better way might be to install Picasa. Have Picasa scan that folder and it does not move the pictures, but you would still have a picture viewer to browse through them all.

Cool, didn't know you could do that Bob.

Ta for merging the posts.

bobtomay said:

Note: Merged duplicate threads.

You can open Finder and browse through the folder on the external using Cover FLow.

To import the single picture, you simply drag and drop the individual file onto the iPhoto icon.

A better way might be to install Picasa. Have Picasa scan that folder and it does not move the pictures, but you would still have a picture viewer to browse through them all.

Click to expand...

I didn't know you could do that if the files are in iPhoto Library format. If, however, the files were exported from iPhoto (File > Export) rather than simply archived as an iPhoto Library, then you could browse them like any other folder/directory.

It wouldn't matter if the file was part of an iPhoto library, since you're able to simply view that librarys files in Finder by right clicking on the library file and choosing "view folder contents" from there just browse like normal.

Doug

Many thanks for all the replies and sorry for the duplicate, internet here is rubbish!

Cheers

SB