Help with managing RAW and jpeg images and installing iphoto 9

Question

Greetings: Fist, let me make the neophyte apology and plea - I'm sorry, I should have come here first; I didn't and now I need your help.
I have just purchased a macbook pro (still in its box) with updated software for my older imac os x. I have a number of Canon related photo editing programs (that came with my 40D digital SLR) and Adobe photo elements 6 for mac on the imac. Following some erroneous advice I have made a complete mess of the pictures folder's content by trying to delete images directly from that folder (there are now 6000+ images in the folder, many of which are duplicates(?). Most of the images are not tagged or labeled and some have been organized in/by iphoto (I corrupted the iphoto's library structure very early on by disrupting and editing its images - which might explain why iphoto had a difficult time 'finding' and displaying some of my photos). The picture folder now holds jpegs, smallRAW images (a Canon 40D photo format) and various duplicates of the orignal images - (some of the duplicates don't display as images, but as jpeg logos, which, when opened contain duplicate image or are completely black) The first time I downloaded RAW images into iphoto 6 the RAW data displayed as a black image. When shooting in smallRAW on the Canon 40D, the camera produces a jpeg image for 'easy viewing and editing in the camera' but it looks as though iphoto 6 made duplicates of the jpeg and the RAW data and stored them in different locals in the picture file. In an attempt to get the number of images down, I have been trying to delete them from the picture folder. (My daughters both download images rather indiscriminately in hopes of 'editing them on the computer' which inevitably does not happen) and there is a lot of experimental bracketing of images - shooting raw and different Camera formats etc., all of which need to be cleaned up before I proceed.
Sometime in the not-too-distant future I would like to have iphoto 9 running on my imac with a clean library of images and a seamless way of downloading, editing and storing images (including the RAW data).
The macbook pro is for my highschool-aged daughter, who will run iphoto 9 but not have any RAW image data on her system. She would like to copy some of the old iMac's images to put into her own iPhoto 9 library (probably using a disk, email or on-line photo service - ideally, I would like to be able to copy and remove a number of those images from my HD and give them to her for the macbook)
A few questions and queries: Can I 'dis-able' iphoto 6, while I delete images (RAW and jpeg) from the picture file? (and is this even a good idea).
Once I have edited the # of images down to a reasonable size, should I re-launch iphoto 6, rebuild the iphoto library and then update to iphoto 9 or skip v6 and rebuild with v9?
And now for the 'how stupid is this guy question' - I really had planned to purchase an external backup; but between new the macbook, car repairs and braces it has never come to fruition. So, I have never properly backed up my images. What is the bare-bones, least expensive method for me to do this? I'd even consider burning everything to disks if that works. I can't afford the $ to purchase a new external hard drive right now (really). Budget is set aside mid-November for one though.
I've been looking through some other discussion boards and it looks like I'm not the only one having RAW image issues. I know that shooting smallRAW with the companion jpeg is probably not helping things but I take my camera equipment on extended canoe trips - and we like the ease of on-the-spot editing with this format.
Thanks in advance for your help - Mark

Answer 1

Terence, Is the picture folder the primary source for the images or does that data reside somewhere else?
If you gathered them there, then yes.
I really don't want to have to go through 14,000 images looking for the pictures that I want to keep (or is that my only option?).
Only you can decide what you want to keep.
Why does the computer keep making copies of the images and filing them under date and events?
That's how iPhoto works. It's not a problem usually, only you did go in there and make a problem, and now we are trying to fix it.
You advise not to muck around in the picture file via preview,
No I don't. I advise not to much around in the iPhoto Library Folder.
but if I download images through a program other than iPhotos - image capture or adobe aren't I doing that anyway?
Adobe what? Adobe is a software manufacturer who make many excellent applications, you need to be more precise. And no, if you import photos with Image Capture or “adobe” no you are not interfering with the iPhoto Library Folder.
Can you edit a base image file somewhere and remove it from the HD without iphoto making a copy of it and storing it somewhere else?
This is stunningly easy. Don't use iPhoto. Use an image editor.
I want to look the negatives, decide which ones I want and throw the rest away. Can that be done or am I way off course?
Yes, and iPhoto (or similar apps) make this really easy.
Hook up your camera. Import the pics to iPhoto. Go through the imported pics. Trash the ones you don't want. Then process the ones you do. But you must learn how to use iPhoto to do this successfully
To trash: put the pic in the iPhoto trash and empty it. This removes the file from iPhoto and the Hard Disk.
Process it: If you want to use another editor: You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
Regards
TD