ALL pictures in iPhoto *and* PhotoBooth are gone :( please help

Question

Hello,
I have a bit of a dilema here. On 6-27-07 (actually 6-28 cause it was after midnight), my daughter and I were taking pictures in photobooth. I selected the iPhoto icon from the PhotoBooth picture to send a copy of those pictures to iPhoto.
PhotoBooth froze up after doing several of them and wouldn't work. I am trying to remember from memory (which is swiss cheese from the MS), but I think I had to do a hard shut down. When I tried to go to iPhoto, it acted like it was my 1st time using it and it began asking me questions as if I was setting it up for the 1st time. ALL pictures are GONE. Everything in iPhoto and PhotoBooth are GONE I don't know what I did or how (if I can) to fix it.
Can anyone possibly help me? Lots of precious memories gone. I was recently going to read how to do a back-up right before this happened. Now I wish I hadn't gone to sleep that night until I learned how to do it and actually did make a back-up
My husband called Apple and they told him to do something and now that has created approximately 3 copies of random pics and not all of them, or I would just delete the extras. My husband may have done something wrong to have it make extra copies of the pictures it has now, I don't know.
My husband didn't seem like he was happy with the help that he was getting at the time. So, I found my way here again!!! I have been to the discussions boards once before, but I forgot how to get here (serious swiss cheese memory from MS). I have to save ALL websites that I like to my favorites or I should say 'Bookmarks' or I will probably never find it again. <embarassed>
**I will tell you a little about me and the use of my mac....... I have Multiple Sclerosis so my husband purchased the lap top to make it easier for me to get online and not be stuck to one chair which makes me hurt bad. I am new to Mac and have always used a PC.
Anyway, when we purchased it we explained that I would mainly be using it for Internet use and for the pictures that I take (I am disabled, so that is about all I can do but I thoroughly enjoy it), which happens to be more than the average person since I have a new Grandson
Any help that anyone can give me, I would TRULY APPRECIATE!!!!!!
Thanks,
New2Him

Answer 1

Brenda,
You're quite welcome.
That does sound like your original library. It makes sense to me; your husband was probably told to drag it to the Desktop by the Apple help desk person. Look inside your Pictures folder for the other two iPhoto Library folders. If you don't find them there, do another Finder Search. Click once on a found item in the Search window to see its path at the bottom of that window. That should help you locate those folders.
After you find and rename or delete the other libraries, you will be ready to create a new library. (You might not want to delete those other folders yet - in case some photos are missing from your main library. But if you are sure that nothing in them is original, go ahead and Trash them to free up the space.)
To create a new library, Option-launch iPhoto and click "Create Library." By default it will be located in your Pictures folder and named "iPhoto Library." You can change the name if you want - say, "iPhoto Library New" before you click "Save." A new, empty library will open. Drag the right corner of the window up so that it fills only about half of your screen. Do iPhoto > Preferences > Advanced and make sure that there IS a check in the boxes beside "Copy files to iPhoto Library folder when importing to library" and "Add ColorSync Profile".
On the other half of your screen, open a Finder window. Set it to column view and navigate this path: Desktop/ iPhoto Library/ Originals/ 2007/ (Film Roll folders). It is these Film Roll folders that contain your photos. Select all of the Roll folders and drag them as a group over the iPhoto window until the cursor shows you a green plus symbol. Drop them in the main viewing area of the iPhoto window. iPhoto will indicate to you that it is importing. A film roll will be created for each folder that you dragged. [Tip: if you want an Album to represent each film roll, then drag them to the Source Pane (left column) instead of the main viewing window. This will create an Album and a film roll, both with the same name as the imported folder.]
I have read that the film roll date can be wrong after importing, so you may want to check the dates as you go. Open the Info Pane in the lower left corner of the iPhoto window (click the little i). When you select a Roll, its info will display in the Info Pane. You can edit the Roll's title and date, if you wish.
When the 2007 rolls have all been imported, switch to the Originals/ 2006 folder, select the roll folders, and drag to your iPhoto window. Repeat for each year in your Desktop library.
This will recover your Original, unedited photos in the same film rolls as before. What cannot be saved is your Albums, Slideshows, Books, titles, keywords, ratings, and other metadata. These were contained in the database file that was damaged during the iPhoto hang or subsequent hard shut down.
If you had spent significant time editing your photos, then you may want to have a look in Desktop/ iPhoto Library/ Modified to see if you wish to save any of the edited versions. There is no way to reconnect the edits with their Originals; that info was also stored in the database file. But if you want to import them to your library you may. Be aware that this will cause the appearance of duplication, much like you had in the library your husband created. If you can part with your edited versions, then it is much easier to discard them. (If not, be selective.)
I'll look forward to hearing your progress. Regards,
Shelly