Backing up all my photos on external hard drive

Hi!
I have iPhoto 4.0.3 (no need to upgrade, nor have I had the time to do it yet), and I have 6,347 photos. It says that I'm using 3,506 MB. My computer isn't running slowly, but I haven't bought extra RAM and I'm sure iPhoto isn't helping the speed of my computer. I have a LaCie external hard drive with 104.12 GB available. I have heard that I should drag my "iPhoto Library" folder to the external hard drive and save it there. I already have supposedly saved all my pictures on a DVD as well. My first question: Is just dragging and dropping this folder to the ext. hard drive sufficient or is there something else I need to do to make sure it is transferred? Second question: Once transferred to the LaCie, will these pictures only open in iPhoto? Third: Is it then safe to delete all my photos in the iPhoto program?
Thanks!
Kim

iPhoto Help topics of interest...
"backing up your iPhoto Library folder"
"moving your iPhoto Library"
"switching between photo libraries"

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Backing up all files to an external hard drive

I recently converted over to a Macbook Pro from PC and had all of my PC data saved to an external Hard Drive. I can retreive the data fine, but I can't save anything to the Hard Drive. I have plenty of room on my Macbook, but old habits are hard to break and I like to back everything up at least once a week.
I do not want to reformat my External Hard drive as there is ALOT of information on there that would be lost.
So, how can I copy things over there, or drag them over to the External? When I try, it gives me the circle with the line through it.
And if you have time, tell me about Time Machine. I am interested, but it seems like alot of work, because I would have to copy everything off the hard drive, let Time Machine reformat it, and then copy it back. Seems VERY time consuming.
External hard drive is 2TB and has approximately 90GB on it.
Thanks for your help.

Sorry for missing this addition:
Drive Preparation for OS X
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

My hard drive that is sync to my ipad crashed! Good thing is all my photos were transferred to my ipad for viewing - now my quesiton is how do I back up my ipad on another computer without losing my pictures? can I back up my ipad on a external hard drive

My hard drive on my computer crashed! This is the computer my ipad was sync with! All my photos of my three girls are on the ipad, but how do I get them transferred to either an external hard drive or to another computer - or just have them all printed - nearly 1000 photos!
Also, can I back up my ipad with an external hard drive? If I try to sync to a new computer it will erase everything I currently have on the ipad , correct?
Thanks for your help - I am worried if I don't do something quick, my ipad will crash too!

Right. You didn't read the post, you only read the title.
The title came from an earlier step in the process when I was posing a question to the systen.
The pertinent part of the question is "How to I back up documents that are stored in iCloud"
That the destination for the backup is NOT my internal HDD should be clear from the rest of the post.
And frankly, even if that is where I want to back up to, that would at least give me two copies, at least giving me one duplicate of the stuff on iCloud.
So please stop wasting my time if you can't answer the actual question: How do I backup content that is stored in iCloud. The destination of the backup is irrelevant.
--P

Backing up photos to external hard drive,and exporting back to CF card on camera

iPhoto 5 on Mac Power PC G4, OS 10.4.11
backing up photos to external hard drive (LaCie) My iPhoto Library contains a number of files (such as 'Library.iPhoto' 'iPhoto.db' 'ThumbJPG.data' etc) and a number of folders with dates such as 2005 etc, containing folders within folders, none of which with any contents.
Is there a way I can organise just the photos on their own so that I can select just those to be backed up on my LaCie hard drive, without all those distracting and (apparently) unnecessary extra files and folders ?
exporting edited photos back to CF card on camera I have tried everything I can think of to export photos from iPhoto back to the CF card on the camera, without success. It must be possible to do ?

Edit: Note: It's been a while but the Export command may be in the Share menu on older versions...
1. To back up an iPhoto Library
Most Simple Back Up
Drag the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to another Disk. This will make a copy on that disk.
Slightly more complex:
Use an app that will do incremental back ups. This is a very good way to work. The first time you run the back up the app will make a complete copy of the Library. Thereafter it will update the back up with the changes you have made. That makes subsequent back ups much faster. Many of these apps also have scheduling capabilities: So set it up and it will do the back up automatically. Examples of such apps: Chronosync or DejaVu . But are many others. Search on MacUpdate
2. To Back up Just the Photos
Use the File -> Export command to export the images to where you want them.
BTW: there are no user-serviceable parts in the iPhoto Library Folder. Rooting around in there can cause damage.
3. Edited Photos to CF Card is a two part process:
Exporting is just File -> Export. Choosing any setting except 'Original' and you'll get the Edited version.
The CF Card? Just drag and drop there.
But a couple of possible problems: Canon Cameras don't show up in the Finder. So you'll need to stick the card into a USB Card Reader for get them on there
Camera Cards are all formatted FAT. That means there's a limit to the number of items on the top level of the card: Workaround: Export the shots to a folder and drag that over
And, of course, if you want to see the shots in the camera, you'll need to put them in whatever specific folder it uses for the photos.
Regards
TD

Hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

hi, ive been backing up my computer to an external hard drive (with time machine). When i buy a new macbook will that hard drive put all my info on to the new computer?

When you boot the new machine for the first time, you'll be prompted to import your data from a Time Machine backup.

How do I restore all of my itunes content onto my newly installed computer drive? All my purchase are no longer in my account but I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. Now how do I get them back? Please

how do I restore all of my itunes content onto my newly installed computer drive? All my purchase are no longer in my account but I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. Now how do I get them back? Please

Ummals wrote:
...I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. ...
Did you follow all the steps as detailed here...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

After clean install of Snow Leopard, Time Machine did not restore all files. When I try to restore these files I get "Not enough disk space" error. What do I need to do to get these important files back onto my Mac from my external hard drive??

Janet.b wrote:
About 3 years old...pretty dated now I guess. Am thinking I may just need to have it upgraded by a Mac tech.
For what the Apple Store's charge you can buy almost buy a new computer.
Just for giggles I brought my old laptop in for a drive upgrade and asked, they wanted $600 for a drive that only cost $120 at the time and it was a slow 5,400 RPM drive. The new Mac's of a similar make were going for $1000.
I did the drive replacement myself, got a faster drive of better quality for $300 instead.
Then another time I asked for a RAM upgrade from 4GB to 8GB, they wanted to charge $400 + $35 for the labor.
The same RAM is on Crucial.com for $90 and all I need is a 00 micro phillips screwdriver.
So you see what's going on here.
I think what you should do, if your out of warranty/AppleCare, is to call up the local PC tech guy who also does Mac's and have them fix you right up.
They can offer more personalized care which you need. Clone your old drive to the new and everything.
With Apple they are overworked at the Genius Bar and just place roadblocks so you buy a new machine instead.
For instance, all new iMac's now have proprietary drive software installed on the hard drives for heat monitoring. So now the only choice a user has is to bring their iMac into a Apple Store for a very expensive drive upgrade, which a person then decides the money is better spent buying a new machine.

Want to move photos to external hard drive

Here is my situation.
I have used iPhoto before abd gave more than one iphoto library on my hard drive. I want to move all of my pictures onto an external drive so I have them all in one place. I then want to delete all the photos on my hard drive so I can free up space.
How can I do this? How cam I get all pictures on iMac and another connected external drive to this new external drive which is empty of any files right now. After which I want to delete all the photos on mac PC in order to free up space.
Thanks and I look forward to your reply.
...Bruce

you can move your library to the external drive - Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
Once you have done this all photos you import will go to the iPhoto library on the EHD so any photos that are not in an iPhoto library are simply imported to iPhoto
If you have photos in multiple iPhoto libraries then iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - is the best and easiest solution for merging libraries and moving photos between libraries
LN

I can not locate my photos on external hard drive to get them into iphoto

I backed my laptop up on an external hard drive, then installed snow leopard and to get my laptop to run faster I did a fresh install of OS X. Once I got everything done i put my stuff back on laptop and everything looks good except my photos. I have no photos, I am trying to figure out if somehow they never made it to the external hard drive or if I just can't find them on there to get them back on my laptop. I am not that great with computers and I am sure my terminology isn't exact but I am trying my best to figure this out. Thanks for any help

I believe I had leopard and I was having issues getting errors of system not being supported. I contacted Apple and was advised I needed to upgrade to snow leopard. My laptop is from 2009 and I haven't done anything to it till now. The apple rep also stated I should do a fresh install when putting snow leopard on so my laptop would run faster. Apple rep told me to get a external hard drive to put my info on it so the fresh install would reset everything to like it was brand new. I had someone help me with getting everything on the EHD.. doing the right format and such and then once that was done I put in the CD for snow leopard and hit install. Which brings me to now, with everything but my pictures. I have the EHD plugged in... now what? What do I do? I have looked in the EHD in iphoto and it was all standard images *not my pictures but images of a check mark or an arrow again not actual pictures. I don't see a folder pictures and i looked for images and found nothing. I have Applications, Included Free Designs, Library, System, User Guides and Information and Users, those are my options and non of those have a "pictures"
I have iPhoto '09 version 8.1.2 & Mac OS X version 10.6.3

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

If i backed up my iPhotos on an external hard drive can i delete them off my mac?

I recently backed up my Macbook pro on to an external hard drive. I was wodnering if i could delete my photos from my iphoto library to save space, and if so can i then get them back on my computer from my external hard drive?

Depends on exactly what you did
And if you delete the information from your main computer then you do not have a backup - to have a backup you need hte original on your computer and an exact copy on another disk
What format is the external drive? It must be Mac OS extended (journaled) to have your iPhoto library on ti
What did you copy to the external drive? The iPhoto library or your photos?
What you probably need to do is to run your iPhoto library on an external drive and to have a second external drive to backup to - Time Machine is a good choice
To run your iPhoto library on an external drive verify that the drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the iPHoto library to it intact as a single entity - depress the option and command keyus, launch iPhoto and select the new location - fully test the library on the external drive and after one successful backup cycle verify that the external drive is being backedup - then delete your iPhoto library on the main drive - test one more time before emptying the trash
LN

How do i back up my iphone to an external hard drive and not my computer

How do I back up my iphone to an external hard drive attached to my pc and not my pc? My disk on my pc is almost full and even though I selected the external hard drive it still seems to try to back it up to my computer, then says I don't have sufficient storage. I cahnged my folder under preferences to the External Drive folder.

This is where iTunes stores backups for different operating systems: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
I do not use a Windows machine, have a Windows Vista Dell I rarely startup now. But, from what I remember with Win boxes is, you will have to create on the external hard drive a file system like that one iTunes normally uses, and then in the iTunes preferences or control panel edit the location for the storage to specify the name of the external hard drive, or its letter code, with the name of that file system you created on the exernal drive.
I would also move all of the files from the internal file system to the external since you have now told iTunes that is where they are...before deleting from the internal drive, test iTunes to see that it goes where you want it to go.

I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now.

I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now

It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

After backing up through time machine on external hard drive, how do you access that data?

I backed up my MacBook to an external hard drive through Time Machine. After it was all done and I reconnected the external hard drive to make sure that I could access everything that was backed up, I couldn't get into the data on the external hard drive because it said that it was backed up through Time Machine.
What does this mean? How to I access the data that is on my external hard drive?

There are 2 options.
1) (The Suggested way) With the TM external drive connected Open The Time Machine App in Applications and you can browse what has been backed up.
2) Open Finder and select the drive name on the left then the Backups.backupsdb folder and in there is all your files from the backups you have made listed under your Machine Name and in that folder under the dates/times they were created

Hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive?

hey, can i clone my Macbook Pro internal hard drive and then paste it all onto a formated external hard drive, then make the Mac use the external as the primary hard drive? please help for i only have around 618mb left out of 189GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If what doesn't work?
If cloning your internal drive to the external drive is not successful, I expect CCC will tell you so. Assuming that doesn't happen, you will have a bootable replica of the internal drive on the external drive once CCC has finished.
You can then do any of several things:
1. Replace your internal drive with a much larger one (320GB or 500GB, or even larger), and clone the external drive's contents onto the new drive so you'll have all your data in one place. Note that if you do this, you'll also need to buy an external drive that's large enough to back the new internal drive up on.
2. Boot from the external drive as a temporary measure while you clear at least 30-40GB of data off the internal drive, allowing you to keep using it and saving small amounts of data to it. The external drive will then contain the only copies of the files you've deleted from the internal drive, so you'll need a seond external drive large enough to back both the other drives up on.
If you can't comfortably clear a minimum of 30GB off the internal drive, you really need a larger internal drive right now, and you shouldn't bother fooling around with the inadequate one you have — you'll just quickly overfill it again.
3. Replace the optical drive in your MBP with a large conventional hard drive, giving you two hard drives inside the machine. You will then need one or more external drives large enough to back up both of the internal drives.
If you sense a theme here — back up, back up, back up — you are correct. It's flat-out foolhardy to own or use a computer without maintaining complete, up-to-date backups of everything at all times.

Backing up all my photos on external hard drive

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