external hard drive issue

i just bought an external hard drive and all of my data is now backed up. when i try to open the hard drive, it says "you can't open the application iPhoto (or whatever application i want to open) because it is in a time machine backup.

i want to be sure all of my movies, songs, photos are really on the ext. hard drive before i delete them from my laptop. how can i see the applications? i know they are there, but i'm afraid of deleting them until i can actually see them.

i apologize to you all - i'm not very mac savvy. i appreciate your patience...

Open the time machine application and your screen will be taken over by time machine, showing a Time based version of the finder where you can navigate around folders to see what is backed up, and even go back in time if that's what you want

i appreciate your reply. unfortunately, i'm not having the outcome you've described. i open the time machine, go to finder, make my way to the applications, click on iphoto (for example) and i get the same message.

maybe i'm doing it wrong....