iphoto help - only thumbnails left

What directories within the iPhoto folder have been copied? The 'Data' directory only contains thumbnails. The 'Originals' and 'Modified' directories contain the original and edited versions of images respectively.

I copied all of the iPhoto library files but the only thing on the ex hard drive now are the files marked "thumbnails" i.e. no originals or actual jpegs of the photos. I don't imagine it is possible but I wondered if there was a slim chance of "recreating" the originals from the thumbnails. It's frustrating being able to see all of my lost photos as thumbnails but not being able to expand them.

Sadly no, you can't recreate the originals from the thumbnails, only the other way around

It might be worth searching through the directory structure with finder or even at the command line to see if there are any .jpg files lurking in an unexpected place?

As I suspected - I've tried the search facility and checked out various folders but nothing coming up. Something's happened in the back up process and I think I'm going to have to accept losing 2,000 photos. Lesson learned always check up backup successful. Thanks for your help.

I just went into iPhoto and realized that all of my pictures are just thumbnails and not the actual picture. I cant believe this happened I had some great photos in there. I wish I could get them back since I had some in there of my great grandfather who died last year.

This is why TIME MACHINE will be so amazing..even for me, there has been 2 instances today itself where i thought * wish i could just go back in time and not undo what i did*

Leopard will rock