HELP! Desperate!!!

First of all hello, this is my first post. I tried searching the web to answers to my questions, but could only find bits and pieces of what I need.

Anyway, here's the situation. I just returned from vacation a couple of days ago and imported all of my new photos into iPhoto from 3 different cameras. I had some mixed video and still images on a digital camcorder, which actually died during my trip. So I imported those files through a card reader.

As I imported the video files, my system would hang up during the copying process. I ended up relaunching the Finder to clear it out. This probably happened a couple of times before I tried copying a few files at a time. This worked, but I think in the process of relaunching the Finder multiple times, it seems that my iPhoto and iTunes libraries got corrupted. Or maybe it wasn't related to the relaunches at all.

Anyway, I am now unable to access my photos and music. The files were stored on an external HD, which seems to be failing. The drive still mounts (sometimes), and can either show 0 files at the root, or sometimes show pretty much all of the folders, subfolders and files. It's pretty erratic. I am never able to eject/unmount the drive, so I end up just shutting it off, which scares me. When the hard drive lets me, I am able to navigate to the iPhoto library, which shows a file size of 0 KB. I try to open the package, but nothing comes up.

I tried repairing the drive through Disk Utility, but it is unable to make the repairs. I am considering Diskwarrior, but I don't want to spend the money unless I have a good idea that it will work. There were times when iPhoto would let me try to choose the library, but it would give me "permissions" and "locked" errors. I am hoping that if I can get the drive permissions fixed, that it will work. But I don't know enough to know if that's realistic.

I am dealing with a G5 tower, OS X 10.5.8, iPhoto 8.1.2 and a 500GB Iomega external HD. I realize that I'm working with an old system, but it's what I have for the time being.

I am DESPERATE to save my photos. I hope it's not too late already. I don't run Time Machine so I don't have backups. Because of the large amount of photos I shoot, I have iPhoto automatically delete the originals from the cameras when they are imported.

I have two sons (6 & 7) and my photos are very dear to me. I have a previous version of my photo library saved, so it wouldn't be a complete loss. But I would lose about a year worth of memories, including some precious (to me) family vacation photos. In addition, I stand to lose days worth of music, but of course those are replaceable.

Any ideas and possible words of encouragement? I'm sure I'm leaving things out, so let me know if I need to provide any other info.

Thanks in advance.

Scott

I hope I am wrong on this but it sure sounds like the external started having issues. That would explain the finder issues when copying to the external. I have had issues with finder locking completely when a external I was copying to messed up. I hope someone else comes along with a suggestion as not doing well tonight here. Don't give up yet. It depends on what is up with that external and how it's failing.

Try checking the voltage on the external power supply of the external drive I have seen a few lately causing things to happen and they only have to be off by 1 volt as it did on my Lacie drive bought a new wall wart and it was back to normal.

If those photos are as valuable as you state, then certainly Disk Warrior is worth the $99 cost. I'm not sure if Disk Warrior has a trial version. Or you could try Data Rescue 3 from Prosoft which does have a trial version.

Thanks for the responses...

chscag said:

If those photos are as valuable as you state, then certainly Disk Warrior is worth the $99 cost.

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My photos are indeed worth $99 (and then some). I'd just hate to lose a bunch of data and $100 on top of that. I have read a lot about Diskwarrior, I will probably just buy it today.

The "0 KB" file size scares me a lot though.

Also do try what OSXX suggested. I have had that with a WD external and Mad Dog external and it was the power supply with Under voltage. That might not be the issue but for sure worth a shot to test.

How old is this external drive?

dtravis7 said:

Also do try what OSXX suggested. I have had that with a WD external and Mad Dog external and it was the power supply with Under voltage. That might not be the issue but for sure worth a shot to test.

How old is this external drive?

Click to expand...

How would you check the voltage? With a multi tester/voltmeter? I don't have one available, but would pick one up if it seemed to be worth it.

The hard drive is probably 2-3 years old.

I am dealing with a G5 tower, OS X 10.5.8, iPhoto 8.1.2 and a 500GB Iomega external HD. I realize that I'm working with an old system, but it's what I have for the time being.

Click to expand...

Does your iOmega 500 GB external hard drive have an external power supply or it is bus powered? I have one of those and it's strictly bus powered. No power supply to check.

My Iomegas are the larger 5.25" externals and have an external Power Supply. Charley, is yours one of the 2.5" drives? Just curious.

@Dennis

Yes, my iomega 500 GB is the compact 2.5" drive. Strictly bus powered. The OP didn't mention which one he had. I haven't seen the larger iomega 3.5" drives around for a long time but that's what he could have, which is why I asked.

Ok, I might give Data Rescue a shot. My HD is the larger type with a power supply. It's the type that matches the size and appearance of the first generation Mac Minis.

If that's the kind of iomega drive you have, then it would indeed be a good idea to check out the power supply brick first as has been suggested. You may wind up saving yourself considerable money.