Is there a major flaw with Iphoto in regards to organizing and backing up?

Question

Is there a major flaw with Iphoto in regards to organizing and backing up? And how should I proceed??
Here is my story. I have moved roughly 15,000 photos from 7 computers (4 PCs and 3 Macs - basically everyone's computer in the family) onto one external hard drive. The photos were taken by many different digital cameras, are sparsely labeled, and have the most random names and folders. There are a LOT of duplicates. MY MISSION - label and back them up.
The way I normally deal with photos/DATA is this: I plug my camera into my Mac and immediately think about organizing and backing them up. With "Preview" I look at photos (and decide which one I like), create a folder called "where-ever I took these photos" and drag them into that folder. The problem with Iphoto is that you have no ability to control folders, unlike many other applications.
For example, in Itunes you can rename an artist, or even an album, and it will automatically appear in an updated folder. If you alter a photo in Photoshop, it makes you save it is a new file. In Iphoto you cannot make the same "root level" changes without making duplicates. From what I understand, you can place photos into an Album and then export that album (which makes duplicates). Iphoto will rename each duplicate file and then place it in the correct folder. The problem here is I have no idea where the original is to delete it.
Basically I want to create folders called "Trip to Italy 2003" or "Rachel's Wedding" and place all the photos associated with that event in those folders. The problem I run into is that I have a bunch of duplicates. I have heard of a program called Duplicate Annihilator which has gotten favorable reviews. If I import them into Iphoto all the photos are placed in random named folders. I say random because some of the photos were taken on cameras that didn't have the date set correctly. Hence some of my photos will appear in a labyrinth of folders called "Modified / 2001 / Roll 17 / DCM482 / Image25874654.jpg"
I am totally willing to wipe my Iphoto library clean and start again if there is a way to organize the photos as described above. Eventually I will take these folders and save them on a data DVD.
Thanks to anyone who can help.
Gary

Answer 1

You do not need to delve into the folders within the iPhoto Library via the finder to access any photo. That is all done within iPhoto itself. If you need a photo for use outside of iPhoto read Terence Devlin's treatise on file access. iPhoto is a DAM application - Digital Asset Management, not a folder manager. There's a big difference. You can use keywords, album and smart albums to organize your photos.
If you still have the original files you might consider what I do. I rename each file with the date it was taken using the international date format: YYYY-MM-DD-001.jpg. You can download the demo version ofMedia Expression and automatically rename each folder of photos with the EXIF date and a sequential number. This makes chronological searching and sorting much easier both in iPhoto and the Finder.
If you want to not only manage the photos but the folders then Expression Media will let you do both. It will let you rename files after being imported into a catalog, move them between folders, add ITPC metadata to the files, create virtual albums called Supplemental categories, and much, much more. I use it as my primary DAM and iPhoto for special projects like books, slideshows, calendars, etc.