Lost all my photos

[poppi]

I keep my Photos on an external hard drive. When I opened the iPhoto tonight I saw a message that it is time to rebuild my cache. I clicked OK and when I looked a few minutes later there are zero photos in the fiel. Is it possible I inadvertently deleted all 10,000 photos?

Help please

poppi

 

[nickyr]

With your external hard drive connected to your mac, click on the apple logo in the top left hand corner of the screen, then on about this mac and then on storage.

You should see your main HD and your external HD listed. If your photos are still on your external HD then this will show up as an amount being used for their storage. On mine it shows up as a magenta coloured block.

What does it state on yours?

 

[chas_m]

I have never, ever, seen a message like that in iPhoto. Lots more details please.

 

[poppi]

With your external hard drive connected to your mac, click on the apple logo in the top left hand corner of the screen, then on about this mac and then on storage.

You should see your main HD and your external HD listed. If your photos are still on your external HD then this will show up as an amount being used for their storage. On mine it shows up as a magenta coloured block.

What does it state on yours?

I am confused. I tried what you suggested. Clicked on the apple and about this Mac but only the basic screen appeared. I then clicked on more info and it lists hardware, network, and software data but nowhere do I see storage. I must be missing something. I did go to the EHD and it is a 4TB hard drive with 3.83 TB available. By the way I am at iPhoto 7.1.5 and 10.6.8 OS.

Also see my reply to the response from chas m

Thank you

poppi

 

[poppi]

I have never, ever, seen a message like that in iPhoto. Lots more details please.

This is what it says in iPhoto help

Rebuilding the thumbnail cache gives iPhoto faster access to thumbnail images and the resulting display of the photos themselves. Over time, as photos are added and removed, this cache becomes less efficient.

When iPhoto detects a reduced level of efficiency, or when you upgrade to a new version, iPhoto prompts you to rebuild the thumbnail cache. If you choose not to rebuild the thumbnail cache at the time iPhoto prompts you, iPhoto will remind you again later.

IMPORTANT: It’s a good idea to make a backup of your iPhoto library before rebuilding your thumbnail cache.

That second paragraph sounds ominous. I have "rebuilt" my cache before with no repurcussions but never saw that warning

Thank you

poppi

 

[chscag]

I guess we should also ask you..... Have you been making Time Machine backups or any other kind of backup? You can restore your entire iPhoto library from a Time Machine backup.

 

[poppi]

I guess we should also ask you..... Have you been making Time Machine backups or any other kind of backup? You can restore your entire iPhoto library from a Time Machine backup.

Yes I make regular backups with time machine BUT let me explain my setup. I have 2 EHDs, call them G1 and G2. My original plan (which turned out to be unworkable) was to use G1 for iPhoto and iMovie and that is what I presently do so my iPhoto files are on G1. (I did this to keep my Mac from being overloaded with photos - I have 4 GB of memory). I bought the G2 to house time machine backups which it does HOWEVER after I had all this set up I learned through this forum that time machine backs up only the Mac and cannot back up EHDs (I assume this is still correct?). So, bottom line, if I have lost the iPhoto from the G1 drive it is GONE. I can't remember how large those files were but I suspect keeping them on the Mac will use up much or all of the capacity?

I do have the vast majority of my pix backed up on over a hundred CDs but restoring them from there would be an enormous task.

Can you confirm that what I have said is correct and if there is any hope of restoring the lost files?

Second question - how could Mac permit the cache rebuild to destroy all my files?

Thank you

poppi

 

[poppi]

The mystery deepens. When I go to my EHD, the one that houses my iPhoto library, and click on the iPhoto Library > Get info it says the folder is 86.7 GB which would indicate that there are a huge number of photos there. However, when I click to open that folder it says I have zero photos. What is going on?

Thank you

Poppi

 

[nickyr]

I get this when I click on about this mac. What version of OSX are you running?

 

[poppi]

I get this when I click on about this mac. What version of OSX are you running?

I am at 10.6.8

 

[nickyr]

Ah - that would explain that.

It would seem that your photos are on the disc.

Have you tried rebuilding iphoto by holding down the command and option keys while launching iphoto?

 

[poppi]

Ah - that would explain that.

It would seem that your photos are on the disc.

Have you tried rebuilding iphoto by holding down the command and option keys while launching iphoto?

When I do that it gives me several options -Rebuild using small thumbnails, all thumbnails, Rebuild database. Recover orphaned photos, and Examine and repair permissions. Tried all of these and still no recovery

 

[nickyr]

One last thing from me - with your EHD connected, open disc utility (this should show how much of your disc is used to store photos) and run verify and repair permissions.

 

[poppi]

One last thing from me - with your EHD connected, open disc utility (this should show how much of your disc is used to store photos) and run verify and repair permissions.

Went to disk utility and clicked on EHD G1 (which houses the iPhoto) Had to click on information to see that it is using 169 GB but Verify Disk Permissions and Repair Disk Permissions are greyed out. Verify Disk and Repair disk (2 separate choices) are both available. Are these the ones I shouls use?

poppi

 

[nickyr]

yes - try those. They should show whether there are any problems with your EHD. It's possible it's failing.

 

[poppi]

yes - try those. They should show whether there are any problems with your EHD. It's possible it's failing.

Diud as suggested and received the following result

The volume G-DRIVE 1 appears to be OK.
Volume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.

I should tell you that since starting the thread I imported 27 photos from my camera and they do show when I open iPhoto but all the suggestions I have tried to date do not make the original collection reappear

poppi

 

[chscag]

At this point in time, you might want to try using data recovery software and stop trying to access the external hard drive where your photos are (were) stored. Since it shows that there are 87 GB being used it's likely that re-building the cache may have damaged the file allocation table resulting in damaged file pointers. However, the data is still there.

Try: Data Rescue 4

 

[Rod]

Poppi, with your enxternal HD connected startup iPhoto on your computer while holding the option key. You should see a small window saying Choose Library. How many libraries do you see? There will always be one on your computer because iPhoto cannot function without an internal library. If for example you were to disconnect your EHD G1 and load some photos from say a camera they would go into the 'internal' library which theoretically should be empty but you may be surprised.
The external HD iTunes library should have a different name to the internal library e.g. iPhoto Library 2
Just make sure you are actually viewing the library on the EHD you may be looking at the wrong library.

 

[poppi]

At this point in time, you might want to try using data recovery software and stop trying to access the external hard drive where your photos are (were) stored. Since it shows that there are 87 GB being used it's likely that re-building the cache may have damaged the file allocation table resulting in damaged file pointers. However, the data is still there.

Try: Data Rescue 4

Looked at that but unfortunately it requires 10.7.5 OS and I am at10.6.8. Also the free application only recovers 2GB data and I am reluctant to buy a program that might not work.

Thank you

poppi

 

[chas_m]

This situation is one of the many, many reasons why we advise people to not fall too far behind the latest OS X releases.