How to read external hard drive photo's on iphoto

I have all our photo's (nearly 56GB's) stored on an external hard drive for fear that one day my iMac woudl crash.  Everytime we'd load a photo, it would load to the external hard drive, and the 'old iMac' iPhoto would read it from the hard drive.  That computer crashed.  We're now using my wife's MacBook Air, but that only has a 64GB flash drive, so loading the photo's onto that will not work. How do I set up my wife's MacBook Air to read the photo's on the external hard drive?
I'm running OS 10.7.4

Have you got that disk backed up?
I have all our photo's (nearly 56GB's) stored on an external hard drive for fear that one day my iMac woudl crash.
Simply, that drive is far more likely to suffer damage than your Macs HD.

Similar Messages

  • How to read external hard-drive from all users

    Hello everybody !
    I have a Lacie Porshe Design external hard-drive for my Mac.
    I have 2 user accounts which both are "admin".
    Since yesterday, when I plug my external hard-drive, I cannot read the files on it unless I'm on the first "admin" account. I want to read the files from all the users account. There's a little red stop sign on the files and it tells me I have not the permission to view the files when I'm on the second user account.
    Why does it work only with the first "admin" account and not the second one ? How to I disable this ?
    It worked perfectly yesterday and I have no idea why.
    Thank you very much guys !

    I am sorry for the confusion.
    The technician fresh-installed all the programs needed on a session they created called admin. On it there is all the programs but nothing else.
    In case of trouble with the programs and licenses, the techicians asked for us to leave this ADMIN session untouched and to do our project and personnals things on our own new session.
    So I got
    ADMIN - only the programs installed by the technicians, admin status enable first
    PERSONNAL - all my personnal files and the programs installed by the techicians, admin status enable later
    When I read my Lacie Hard-Drive from the PERSONNAL account, I do not have the permission to read my old Time Machine backup files from my previous mac even thought the PERSONNAL account got the admin status enable. But when I read the Hard-Drive from the ADMIN account, I can read those files.
    Hopefully this is clearer.
    Thank you for your time !

  • How do I download all my photos onto an external hard drive intact without loosing iPhoto's features, important info and details? I need to delete pictures and files to make room in My mac's memory which is currently full.

    Hi
    How do I download all my photos onto an external hard drive intact without loosing iPhoto's features, important info and details? I need to delete pictures and files to make room in My mac's memory which is currently full.
    Maro

    So you want to move the iPhoto Library?
    Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    1. Quit iPhoto
    2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
    3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
    4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
    Regards
    TD

  • How to use external hard drive and iTunes together?

    how to use external hard drive and iTunes together?

    Yes I did get to that part.... I went trough external to retrive itunes folder... When I selected the folder, it said that it was locked, choose another folder... I then went to my external again to my itunes folder and and used command I to see if folder was locked and it wasn't.... it was suggested on another forum to reboot.. which I did and still same problem... All I want to do is link my external hard drive that has my itunes playlist from another Mac to my new one.. and to also use the external as the main source for adding new songs to my playlist...

  • I would like to thank PlotinusVeritas for his or her advice on how to fix external hard drive. It worked. Many thanks!

    I would like to thank PlotinusVeritas for his or her advice on how to fix external hard drive. It worked. Many thanks! I am new and may not be the right place to post my message here. But I am really grateful and want to express my appreciation to PlotinusVeritas.

    Mickey,
    Here is your original topic:
    Need Help with my External Hard Drive
    PV seldom if ever visits this forum as it is for Macs made before 1998.

  • How to decrypt external hard drive on lion filevault

    How to decrypt external hard drive on lion filevault

    To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Open the OS X Terminal utility and run the following command:
    diskutil cs list
    The output of this command will look like a hierarchical tree. Locate the long alphanumeric code next to the words "Logical Volume Group" (this code is called a "UUID"), and copy this code to the clipboard by highlighting it and then pressing Command-C.
    2. Run the following command to destroy the logical volume group, replacing "UUID" with the alphanumeric string from the first command.
    diskutil cs delete UUID
    When done this will clear the volume and allow it to be formatted and otherwise customized. See the following screenshot for what this should look like (the two commands are underlined in blue:

  • Can I keep photos on external hard drive and still use iPhoto?

    I have virtually no space left on my eMac's 80GB hard drive. For a long time, I have kept my sizable iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to the eMac. It takes a bit of extra time to open up the iTunes library and to upload music from newly purchased CDs, but generally the external hard drive and eMac perform well together. My question is: Can I do the same with my photos (put them on the external hard drive) and still use iPhoto to access them and edit them? I have checked some of the Apple knowledge base documents, and there seem to be warnings against this. I am currently using iPhoto 6.0.6. I have purchased iPhoto 7.0 (with iLife '08) but haven't put the new software on the computer because there is not enough space. I would like to straighten out this space problem and get the benefits of the new software. (I have backed up quite a few of the photos onto CDs, but I like to have them handy--therefore on the eMac or on a hard drive connected to the eMac.) Thanks ahead to anyone with some good ideas on this topic.

    winesmile
    Yes it is, but you cannot access the at the same time as iPhoto can only open one library at a time.
    So, a solution might be to have the entire library on the external, and to carry the smaller subset on the laptop.
    To do this, follow the instructions above to move the library, but instead of deleting the library on the laptop (in the final step), put the pics from the earlier years into the iPhoto trash and empty it. (iPhoto Menu -> Empty Trash. Hint: Don't so them all at one go! Better a few a a time.)
    Now you have the full library on the external (and if you want to access the full library, use that) and the 07 & 08 years on your laptop.
    To switch between libraries, simply hold down the option (or alt) key when launching.
    As you add photos to the Library you can use iPhoto Library Manager to move pics and albums /events between libraries, and so keep them up-to-date with each other.
    Please note this is the only way to sync the libraries, there is no app that can do this automatically.
    Regards
    TD

  • I had to erase my hard drive and then reinstall everything back from my passport external hard drive. Now my iPhoto edit is not working. I get a blank screen when I want to edit. The photos show up in the library but I cannot edit them. Help?

    I had to erase my hard drive and then reinstall everything back from my passport external hard drive. Now my iPhoto edit is not working. I get a blank screen when I want to edit. The photos show up in the library but I cannot edit them. Help?

    There are several possible causes for the Black Screen issue
    *1. Permissions in the Library* : Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Include the option to check and repair permissions.
    *2. Minor Database corruption*: Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild.
    *3. A Damaged Photo*: Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and right click on it. From the resulting menu select 'Show File (or 'Show Original File' if that's available). Will the file open in Preview? If not then the file is damaged. Time to restore from your back up.
    *4. A corrupted iPhoto Cache*: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto folder from HD/Users/Your Name/Library/ Caches...
    *5. A corrupted preference file*: Trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist file from the HD/Users/ Your Name / library / preferences folder. (Remember you'll need to reset your User options afterwards. These include minor settings like the window colour and so on. Note: If you've moved your library you'll need to point iPhoto at it again.)
    If none of these help:
    As a Test:
    Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
    Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?
    Regards
    TD

  • How do I move all my iphoto picture files to an external hard drive and then remove iphoto '11 from my computer?

    I would like to remove iphoto '11 from my computer completely because it is causing too many issues.  I would like to ensure that my picture files are safe and stored in an external hard drive.  How do I copy the picture files to an external hard drive without taking the iphoto application files with them? Also, do I need to keep the originals, modified, and masters files of each picture?

    My iphoto has been unresponsive, and I am unable to do anything once I launch the application.
    Option 1
    Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
    If that fails:
    Option 2
    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
    Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
    As to migrating to Aperture: It will import the iPhoto Library and maintain the relationships between Masters and Previews/ Originals and Modified versions.
    There is no way to recreate those relationships in any other app.
    Regards
    TD

  • I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Mac

    I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Machine, there are only about 5 backups recorded on the ext. hard drive. There were many more before. Any idea what happened and if I have to buy a new back up hard drive?

    Hallo  Kieth ,
    I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
    Thanks for your interest and advice.
    regards  - Alan

  • How can I back-up my photos that are in my iPhoto to an external hard drive without using the iPhoto structure.

    I am attempting to back-up my entire MacBook Pro on an external hard drive before deleting everything from the MacBook Pro. Although I appreciate iPhotos photo structure and organization, I would prefer to back my photos up outside of the iPhotos structure, using “regular files” such as it appears in iPhoto’s “Masters” folder.  However, I would like the Event names that are currently assigned to my iPhotos to remain attached to the photos.  Is there a simple way to do any of this? Would this be a matter of somehow exporting each Event from my iPhoto? THANKS! 

    Terence Devlin wrote:
    Stay away from the Masters folder. Rooting around in the Library package can damage the Library and is unnecessary and less useful than the supported way to so this.
    Just export the them: File -> Export:
    This User Tip
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
    has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
    Remember that the Masters won't contain any of the changes that you made, only the files exactly as copied from the camera.
    Thanks, Terence.  As far as filenames go...does "Album Name and Number" work for keeping my Events together?

  • When importing from external hard drive, photos appear as thumbnail size.  How do you edit.  Working on imac- snow leopard

    I have photos on an external hard drive.  When I try to import them to iphotos they appear as a thumbnail (?), small in size.  How is the photo restored to its original image.  If I try to print, it comes out pixelated.   I have many photos on hard drive and would like to restore to original size.   Using Leopard OS

    and the only time I see the pixellation problem is when the original photo's file size is small. 
    What did you expect? Of course if the file size is small it won't print well. There isn't enough data to create a reasonable quality print.
    Web Photos are - typically - very heavily compressed to speed up downloading. I've seen Facebook photos - for instance - lose 90% of their file size after being "processed". There is no way that a 20kb file is going to print well at any size greater than a postage stamp.
    So, basically, the problem you have is the photos you are importing, I'm afriad.
    Regards
    TD

  • How does an external hard drive compliment Time Capsule?

    Hi, I am relatively new to iMac and time capsule. I am a novice computer and Mac user so things have to be simple. I have been reading a number of threads in the forums gleaning as much information as I can. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    My iMac is running OS 10.6.4 with a 313 GB HD and my time capsule is 500 GB. I purchased my first iMac 2 years ago. Shortly thereafter I decided that I needed to be backing up files that I have been creating and building especially my photos and music files so I purchased a time capsule which I have been using as an external hard drive not as a wireless router. It is hard wired to my Mac. I use another wireless network. I have used Time Machine a few times and it has worked well for me. So far this simple set up has met my needs.
    Just recently I got two error messages, one that "Your startup disk is full." and "The disk containing your iPhoto library is running low on space.
    While I was exploring my memory capacities and possible ways of freeing up space on my computer my Time Capsule croaked. Apparently all hardware has an expiry date. It has since been replaced under an extended warranty and the new one reinstalled. I have done a complete back of my hard drive and deleted some useless stuff on my computer's hard drive to create 17 free GB. I am pondering what further steps I should take to safeguard my data. I hopefully will be building a much more extensive photo library both in iPhoto and Aperture. I wonder whether I should be looking at an additional external hard drive which seems to be the easiest thing to do. My Time Capsule (500 GB) is not quite twice the size of my computer's hard drive. Maybe it is too soon to invest in an external hard drive seeing that it may have a shot life span such as my first Time Capsule did.
    Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives? The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums. How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule? What is the difference is between USB and firewire? Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
    I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.

    curious r wrote:
    Does Time Machine only work with Time Capsule or will it work with other external hard drives?
    Yes, Time Machine works with external HDs. That's how most folks back up. Connecting directly via USB or FireWire is much faster then Ethernet, but you're right -- all disk drives fail, sooner or later.
    The folks at my Apple store tell me that Time Capsule can be used just to store data but I have heard otherwise in the forums.
    It can be used for Time Machine backups and other things, but trying to use the same one for both presents problems, because of the way Time Machine works (filling-up all the available space before deleting the oldest backups) and the fact that you can't partition a Time Capsule's internal HD to separate your backups from the other data. Plus, you can't back up the other data.
    How would an additional external hard drive will work with Time Capsule?
    It won't extend the TC's internal HD -- backups can't "span" the two. In your setup, you'd be much better off connecting an external HD directly to your iMac. The advantage of a TC is, since it includes a wireless router, you can use it to make a wireless network and do backups wirelessly. That's what a lot of laptop owners do.
    What is the difference is between USB and firewire?
    FireWire is faster and more reliable for large amounts of data transfer. It also requires less use of your Mac's CPU, since the FireWire chipset does some of the work that your CPU has to do with USB.
    Is it possible to open files stored on the Time Capsule to see exactly what they are?
    Yes. Files you put there (other than Time Machine backups) are just like files on any other disk.
    I do realize that Time Capsule only backs up new files and any changes so I wonder how long I can continue with this arrangement.
    Yes, that's a concern. It varies greatly depending on how you use your Mac, but our general "rule of thumb" is that it needs 2-3 times the size of the data it's backing-up.
    There's another consideration: Time Machine can back up FROM your internal HD and external HDs that are directly connected via USB or FireWire (if they're formatted for a Mac), but it cannot back up from any network drive, including a TC's internal HD or a USB drive connected to it. So if you move some data from your internal HD to an external HD connected to the TC, you'll need some other way to back it up.
    Forgive me, but I'm not sure why you have a Time Capsule in your setup, if I understand it correctly. You have one iMac, no laptops or other computers, and you use a different router for your network, right?
    Your best bet may be to get one external HD for the "overflow" of things you don't have room for on your iMac's internal HD, and another, much larger one, for Time Machine backups of both.
    I'll press my luck here and also suggest yet another external HD, perhaps a portable, for "secondary" backups. With a portable, you can take it to a secure off-site location, such as your safe deposit box, workplace, relative's house, etc., and also be protected against fire, flood, theft, direct lightning strike on your power lines, etc. See #27 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] for more.

  • New external hard drive froze while transferring info to new computer. Laptop does not read external hard drive. Went to Apple store and didn't work. Any suggestions?

    Day 1. Went to Apple store because iMovie was not working. It kept shutting down. Prior to going to the store, I called Apple Support and deleted and reinstalled iMovie. Still did not work. Then I went to the Apple Store. After an hour it finally worked but when I got home, it didn't work AND my iPhoto application was missing. Tried to back up on external hard drive but it didnt work.
    Day 2. Explained the situation again to Apple employee at Apple Store. I bought an external hard drive that employee recommended and picked out. I went home and backed up my computer on the external HD.
    Day 3 (morning). Went back to Apple. Employee verified that my hard drive was backed up successfully. All my photos, music, and documents were successfully backed up. He was going to reinstall the operating system. He did that successfully. He showed me how to install the external HD info to the laptop. I went home and followed the directions. It was going to take about 2 hours. I kept monitoring the progress and everything looked good until....30 minutes remained. 30 minutes remained for a good 20 minutes. The ext hard drive stopped responding. I tried to canel but there were no buttons to push. I exited the program. I called apple support and they tried to walk me through it. My computer still was not recognizing that the exteranl HD was plugged in. I mad another trip to the Apple store and the emplyee confirmed that the extranal HD was not reading. He tried plugging it in to his computer and it still wasnt reading.
    He did give me a data recovery number to call. I asked if Apple would cover the cost and he said no. I called then and was quoted $700-$2000 to recover the data.
    Does anyone have any suggestions? When frustrates me more is that I followed every instruction and I did exactly what Apple told me to do. Now, ALL of my data is lost and Apple does not want to help.
    Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do next? I need help. =*(

    Hi rkaufmann--
    Thanks for the response.  I can say with confidence that that is not the issue.  I have at least 8 of these same WD external portable drives that are powered through their USB 3.0 cables, and I have never had problems with any of them.  Sometimes I connect them directly to my computer, and sometimes I use a powered hub.  Either way they work fine.  The drives with their own power source do not suit my needs.
    My question is specifically whether anyone has seen an issue where sometimes they plug a drive in and it is not recognized but then it continues to work.  In other words, the question I'm posing to other users is whether it sometimes happens that they connect a drive and it simply doesn't show up, but then they disconnect and reconnect and it goes on working fine as it should.

  • How come my external hard drive is no longer visible in finder even after ticking it in preferences? it shows in the disk utilities but does not allow me to find a problem or fix the problem? Please help.

    it shows in the disk utilities but does not allow me to find a problem or fix the problem? Please help. also my external hard drive is a seagate free agent go, 500GB. it is visible on my tv but has no files in it… i'm scared i've lost everything?

    Honestly i cannot remember sorry, i got it like 5 maybe 6 yrs ago and just started downloading things to it as the memory on the computer started filling up and when i wanted to see photos/videos on my TV.
    My wife did tell me after i had written this post that she did try and record TV to it as it was plugged in. I think by doing so somehow has deleted everything.   It reads on my TV yet has no files in it but won't show up on my computer. hope this helps.
    Starting to think it is going to cost more to retrieve files on it than it will be to buy a newer and larger one.

Maybe you are looking for