Just reinstalled iPhoto and now it won't open the photos I saved on CDs

Question

I recently had a major hard drive crash and had to get a new hard drive. I was so glad that I had all my photos backed up on CDs. But when I reinstalled the software, I can't get iPhoto to open the CDs. I get a message that says the photo libraries were made using a newer version of IPhoto. The only version I have is the version that came with the computer which was iLife 05. I have not yet bought iLife 06 due to finances. The only thing I can think of is that there were updates to the 05 version that I had downloaded and now the original version will not open my files. I tried clicking on update the software, but all I got was an ad for 06. Is there any way to get the updates for 05 so I can get back to where I was before the hard drive gave out?
Thanks,
Carole

Answer 1

That's a bummer.
Here are the instructions for creating a new library. It will get you your photos back for now. Save the CDs in case a solution comes up.
Close iPhoto
Rename your messed up iPhoto Library to "iPhoto Library_old"
Drag this library to your desktop
Hold down the Option key and launch iPhoto
This is the window you will get
Create a new library or choose a library to open
Choose to create a new library
Once this new empty library is open it is time to import the images from your old library
Go to File>add to library
Navigate to the old library on your desktop and highlight it in the window, then click the "open" button.
iPhoto will start importing the images from your old library
This is what to expect:
Your images will be imported in nice dated rolls. (make sure your view is set to sort by rolls to see it) There are a couple of caveats to this. You will get rolls named "Originals" These rolls will contain your video clips and your original images that you had edited. If you had RAW files they would be in those rolls too (I don't do RAW, so I don't know for sure) Delete what you don't want from those rolls. You will also get the jpeg pointer files to your video clips imported. They will just be jpegs and will not point to the video clips anymore as iPhoto made new ones when the clips were imported again. You can delete those. they should be in a roll right next to the newly imported video clips so they are not hard to find. The thumbnail files don't get imported as iPhoto makes new ones when the images are imported.
Once all you images have been imported, check through the library and make sure everything looks ok.
You can now start making your Albums, and do your keywords or any other organizational steps.
You can also delete the old library on the desktop.
It is also a good time to backup this new library to CD/DVD by burning the iPhoto LIbrary folder in the Finder, or copying the iPhoto Library folder to an external drive formatted for Macs, or copying the iPhoto LIbrary folder to an iPod.
Good luck!